Wayne Couzens may have used the Covid lockdown rules to lure Sarah Everard into his car and arrest her, the Old Bailey has been told as the former Met officer is sentenced for murder.
The officer had worked Covid patrol shifts in January 2021, and "was therefore aware of the regulations and what language to use to those who may have breached them," the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Miss Everard was kidnapped as she walked from dinner at a friend's home near Clapham Common in March 2021.
Tom Little QC told the court: "The fact she had been to a friend’s house for dinner at the height of the early 2021 lockdown made her more vulnerable to, and/or more likely to, submit to an accusation that she had acted in breach of the regulations in some way."
Footage played to the court shows Couzens touch his belt and hold up his hand towards Miss Everard, as if showing her something in it, which was thought to be his warrant card. He then handcuffed her, and placed her in the back of his hire car before driving away with her.
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A PS Davies at Metropolitan Police received Couzens’ email sent the night before.
It stated that he was struggling due to the complications surrounding his pay rise was causing him problems.
He didn't feel he wanted to carry a gun.
At 2.38pm on Mar 7, PS Davies sent him a text message informing him that he had received his sickness notification, that he was busy on Monday and Tuesday, but that he would ring Couzens later in the week.
The killer acknowledged receipt of that text at 7.36pm with a text message which read "thanks sgt".
On Saturday, Mar 6, shortly after 9pm, he made a number of purchases from Amazon to be delivered the following day, in preparation for a family trip to Hoads Wood with a trailer.
He bought a blue tarpaulin sheet and a bungee cargo net.
Mr Little, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: "He took his family to the very place where he left body, burnt it and moved it... allowing his children to play in relative close proximity to where Ssarah Everard's body was dumped in the pond.
They made the trip the following day on Mar 7.
Ryan Rose was visiting Hoads Wood with friends on that day, and saw Couzens walking away from his car.
The killer told Mr Rose that he was down there with his wife and children, cleaning up a plot that had broken glass on it.
Mr Little told the Old Bailey: "This may explain why the family had acquired a trailer for the trip. The defendant was carrying a Tesco bag, and seemed anxious to be getting on with what he was doing."
At 1.43pm, Couzens is seen on CCTV buying two 220l 'Clearaway' builders' bags for ￡9.94 at the Honeywood Park Industrial Estate B&Q.
He drove away in the Seat returning to Hoads Wood at about 2.50pm where he was to remain until 3.40pm.
Mr Little, prosecuting, said: "Whilst in the wood he must have moved Sarah Everard’s heavily burnt body from where he had set fire to it, to the pond where she was subsequently found.
"He did so using the two bags that he had just purchased from B&Q."
In between burning his victim's body and going to B&Q to buy bags, Couzens phoned Lakeview Vets to make an appointment for the family dog - Maggie the French bulldog - explaining they wanted to consult the vet about possible medication for separation anxiety.
The call lasted 3 minutes and an appointment was made for Friday, Mar 12 at 4pm.
By the afternoon, the Seat was seen heading to Fridd Lane. Peter Spiller left an area of land that he owns due west of Hoads Wood at about 12:45pm.
As he was driving along Fridd Lane towards Hothfield, just before the railway bridge, he caught a glimpse of a large orange and yellow flame in Hoads Wood.
It was approximately 25m away from the road and about 10-15 metres from the main track.
He described a strong, intense flame, which was not particularly high (about 3-foot square), which did not have the appearance of a typical woodland fire.
A distinctive white object, about 1m x 1m, the size of a small white goods appliance, was either just behind or next to the fire.
Mr Little said: "This is consistent with the location where the defendant burnt Sarah Everard’s body, clothing and possessions using the petrol he had purchased earlier that day."
Couzens didn't leave home again until just before 10.30am.
At 11.05am he went to the BP petrol station at Whitfield Services, Dover in the Seat.
First, he bought an empty green petrol can for ￡7.99 and then filled the can from one of the petrol pumps with 5.85l.
He would use that petrol to burn Miss Everard's body.
After filling his Seat with diesel, returned to his vehicle carrying a Costa coffee cup.
He went to the drive-through McDonalds in Whitfield a few minutes later (purchasing one large extra value meal and a bottle of orange juice for ￡6.19.
After getting rid of the evidence, Couzens returned home. He got home at roughly the same time as he would have done after a night shift.
At 11.32am on Mar 4, the local dentist called Couzens' mobile to re-arrange the dental appointments for his two children scheduled for the following day.
The killer answered the call, was calm and accepting of the inconvenience, and together with the receptionist, re-arranged the appointments for Mar 26.
He then walks back to North Military Road before driving off in the Seat at 8.40am.
Forty minutes later, he is in Sandwich, where he parked at the Guildhall car park, and took a short walk along the River Stour, before returning to his car and driving away at about 09.30am.
His reason for going to Sandwich was to dispose of Sarah Everard’s mobile phone, which he did, throwing it in the flood relief channel.
It was subsequently recovered. Without that mobile phone data, police would never have known he was in Sandwich, the Crown said.
At 8:14am the defendant, wearing the same clothing as the previous evening, went to Costa Coffee in Biggin Street, Dover, where he bought a hot chocolate with coconut milk and a bakewell tart at a cost of ￡5.50.
Video footage shows him paying with contactless, and shifting, crunching his knuckles, as he waits for his order.
The hire car - the Vauxhall Crossland - is returned to Enterprise just before 8.30am, having clocked up more than 300 miles.
He does so without his police equipment, suggesting he has left them in the Seat.
Couzens' movements were sporadic until sunrise.
Moving to and fro from Dover, Ashford and the surrounding rural areas.
He left the area of Hoads Wood for the last time just before the sun came up.
The Crown conceded there was no way of knowing exactly what he was doing during this time, or where Sarah Everard was.
Just after 7.30am, the Seat returns to North Military Road, Dover, and the hire car is driven away towards the central location of the town.
By 1.03am and 2.43am, the killer returned to central Dover with Sarah Everard still in his Seat.
The CPS said they "simply can't say whether it was approximate to the rape or in the hour or two after that" that Sarah Everard was killed.
The Old Bailey heard there had been no offer of explanation from Couzens.
But the prosecution suggest that by 2.31am - when the Seat activated an ANPR camera on the A20 Limekiln Street in Dover - by this point that Sarah Everard is likely to have been murdered.
Mr Little said this is because at 2.34am the defendant went to BP Dover South Services on Limekiln Street and bought:
Mr Little added: "There is no CCTV from the petrol station at the relevant time due to a system upgrade having taken place, after which, inadvertently the system was left switched off for a period of time.
However, the defendant was not to have known that and to have left her alive - even in the boot of the Seat - would have been foolhardy."
Between 11:53pm and 00:57am the killer’s mobile phone used cell sites located in the CT15 postcode area - around and generally orientated towards the villages of Shepherdswell and Eythorne, west of Deal.
There is also an indication that the phone was to the north/northeast of this area, prior to returning south towards Dover.
Cell site analysis also picked up signals from Couzens' phone which serves a rural area to the northwest of Dover. This is an area that the defendant knew well, the Crown told the Old Bailey.
The Crown say that this is the remote, rural area where Wayne Couzens parked up for 45 minutes and raped Sarah Everard in the his Seat.
At 12.57am, the Seat activated an ANPR camera on the southbound A256 in Whitfield, just north of Dover.
The CPS say this device data correlates with the known movements of the Seat - suggesting the mobile phone was travelling with that vehicle.
Mr Little QC also said this is consistent with the defendant returning with Sarah Everard to Dover having raped her.
About six and a half minutes later, at 11:38pm, CCTV footage from a St John’s Ambulance premises shows a brief flash of lights such as when a vehicle’s central locking is activated.
Around five minutes later, at 11.43pm the Seat pulled away from where it had been parked on North Military Road and it was driven out of Dover on the A256.
Couzens must therefore have moved Sarah Everard between the vehicles.
Mr Little, prosecuting, said: "In order to have done so and without her escaping or trying to escape or make a noise it can be inferred that he, at least, must have threatened her.
"The hired Vauxhall Crossland had served its purpose and was not used by the defendant, until much later the following morning."
Couzens drove through South London, heading in an easterly direction, and onto the M20 to Folkestone, then east / north east to Dover, arriving shortly before 11:30pm.
There is nothing to indicate from the telephone data that he stopped or deviated from the main roads.
The hire car was driven north on North Military Road in Dover and parked up shortly after, close to where his Seat must have been left earlier in the evening, the Old Bailey was told.
Dashcam footage from a private vehicle shows the Vauxhall Crossland in the same position.
A nearside rear-facing camera shows a figure in the rear passenger seat (behind the driver).
This was plainly Sarah Everard. A figure was also sitting in the driver’s seat. This was the defendant.
By 9.38pm, the Vauxhall Crossland was moving east along Poynders Road, past the junction with Clarence Avenue, from where it continued eastwards.
After an intense opening, those in court room 10 at the Old Bailey have risen.
We'll be back at 11.45am.
So surprised was the witness by what she had seen, as she considered it to be relatively unusual and not something she had ever witnessed before, she remarked to her husband “I’ve just seen a woman being handcuffed.”
She then saw the man and the woman walking in the direction of travel of the vehicle (i.e. eastwards), with the handcuffed woman in front of the man, and close together.
All her husband - who was driving - was able to see or recall of the scene was a stationary white-coloured vehicle with lights flashing.
Mr Little, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: "They were in fact witnessing the kidnapping of Sarah Everard. She was detained by fraud. The defendant using his warrant card and handcuffs as well as his other police-issue equipment to effect a false arrest. Having handcuffed her to the rear she would not have been able to undo the seatbelt that the defendant must have placed over her.
"That was the start of her lengthy ordeal including an 80-mile journey whilst detained which was to lead first to her rape and then her murder.
"At some point fairly soon after driving from the pavement onto the South Circular and having not gone to a police station, Sarah Everard must have realised her fate."
A couple were travelling on the A205 in their car to their home address in south-east London and witnessed the kidnap.
As they approached Poynders Court, the front-seat passenger noticed what she described as a man and a woman standing on the pavement with the man behind the woman.
The man was wearing dark clothing. She started to watch more closely when she saw a handcuff. The woman on the pavement already had her left arm behind her back, and was in the process of "giving her other arm behind her back" as Couzens placed the handcuff on her right arm.
The Crown told the court that Sarah Everard was compliant, with her head down and did not appear to be arguing. The defendant appeared to be confident.
The immediate impression the passenger formed was that she was witnessing an undercover police officer arresting a woman, whom she assumed "must have done something wrong".
On Poynders Road (A205) – the kidnap happened.
As Sarah Everard made her way along Cavendish Road and Poynders Road, her killer had been driving through Clapham Common, emerging from The Avenue, onto Cavendish Road and Poynders Road, travelling in the same direction as her.
Footage shown to the court show Sarah Everard standing on the pavement, behind the car, facing Couzens, a few feet apart.
Mr Little said: "In the final sequence of footage, the defendant appears to touch his belt and to be holding up his hand towards Sarah Everard, as if showing her something in it."
Meanwhile Sarah Everard left her friend’s flat at about 9.10pm. She was in good spirits when she left.
She walked along the A205. As she walked home at 9:13pm Sarah Everard called her boyfriend, Josh Lowth.
The call lasted 14 minutes and 52 seconds, ending at 9:28pm. He formed the impression that she was walking briskly, as was her habit.
Mr Little QC said: "They made plans for the rest of the week. She sounded in good spirits but not intoxicated, and the conversation ended normally, as if Sarah was just going to continue walking home through South London, something she did routinely.
"That was the last family, friends and colleagues heard from Sarah Everard. She did not text her friend to say she had got home on Mar 3. She did not attend a scheduled client meeting on the morning of Mar 4.
"Her boyfriend’s messages about their plans for the rest of the week had not been read and went unanswered, and there was no sign of her using her telephone or social media such as Instagram, despite her normally doing so. From 11:38pm all attempts to call her mobile telephone went to 'call forward'."
By early evening, after trying other ways of getting hold of Sarah Everard to no avail, Josh Lowth went round to her flat but got no answer.
He started to make enquiries with the hospitals and emergency services, and reported Sarah as missing to the police. He also made enquiries with other friends and family on Mar 4, but nobody had heard from her all day.
Police confirmed in the early hours of Mar 5 that Sarah Everard was not at her home address and that her flat had the appearance of her not having returned there after leaving her friend’s flat.
It was only after an extensive and expeditious police investigation that what happened to Sarah Everard on the South Circular became apparent.
Sarah Everard had worked from home during the day on Mar 3. She planned to have dinner with a friend who lived in the Clapham Junction area.
She walked all the way there and would have walked all the way back had she not been kidnapped, the court heard.
She went to Sainsbury’s on Brixton Hill to buy a bottle of red wine, before heading towards Clapham Junction via Cavendish Road, SW4. She was wearing a pale beanie hat, a short turquoise raincoat, leggings or jogging bottoms with a distinctive black and white chevron pattern, green running trainers with orange/fluorescent laces, with a red-coloured zipped Montane jumper/fleece under her jacket and a pale top under that.
Whilst in the shop, she wore a pale cloth face mask.
She walked along the South Circular and she arrived at her friend’s flat at about 6:30pm with the bottle of red wine she had purchased.
They ate, drank the bottle of wine and talked about various subjects.
Mr Little told the Old Bailey: "The fact she had been to a friend’s house for dinner at the height of the early 2021 lockdown made her more vulnerable to and/or more likely to submit to an accusation that she had acted in breach of the regulations in some way."
The defendant left home and travelled to Dover in the Seat. He did not travel to London in his own vehicle, but stopped in Dover to pick up the hire car he had booked on Feb 28.
Shortly after 4.15pm the defendant drove his Seat in a southerly direction on North Military Road, Dover.
He picked up a white Vauxhall Crossland with black detailing. Couzens was wearing a black puffa-style jacket with a Barbour logo on the breast pocket, a dark blue hooded jumper with a yellow lining in the hood, a dark baseball cap with a white Polo logo on the front, light-grey trousers and black and white trainers.
The defendant told his family that he was working on the night of 3rd March 2021.
He was not.
At 9.38pm on Mar 3 - and therefore at exactly the same time as the defendant drove from the pavement on to South Circular with Sarah Everard detained in the back of the hire car - the defendant’s wife sent a message to the defendant’s mother stating: "Wayne had a call for overtime shift tonight. I wondering if you could pick children from school tomorrow, would you?".
When the police attended the defendant’s home address, a calendar was recovered from the kitchen fridge. It marked Couzens's work pattern - and on Mar 3, he had noted that he was working overtime.
Mr Little told the Old Bailey: "The reality is that the defendant clearly had no intention of going to work on the night of Mar 3.
"The defendant’s explanation as given to the psychiatrist that he took his excess Police kit with him intending to leave it in his locker is not accepted by the Prosecution.
"It defies belief – given that he did not return it when he drove very close to Lillie Road and also what occurred that evening."
The last shift worked by the defendant was the 7pm to 7am night shift on Tuesday, Mar 2, through to Mar 3.
He arrived at the Lillie Road base and was then posted at the American Embassy.
That evening the defendant discussed the possibility of leaving the Metropolitan Police because of the pay dispute and depending on the outcome he might go off sick with stress.
This was meant to be the start of his period of five rest days, from Wednesday Mar 3 at 7am to Mar 8 at 7am, when he was due to return to Lillie Road for a training day.
The defendant worked the following shifts for the PaDP in the week before the kidnap of Sarah Everard:
On Feb 28, a fellow officer saw the defendant coming in to do his night shift. The defendant said he had driven in because there were no high-speed trains. And it was on this date that he booked a hire car online from Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Dover, for the period 5pm on Mar 3 to 09:30am on Mar 4 at the cost of ￡65.40 using his Mastercard.
Mr Little told the court: "He was not due to work at that time and other than planning for what was to take place on Mar 3 there is no credible alternative explanation for his need to hire a car.
"He was regularly using his Seat to travel to and from London. Just two minutes after having booked the hire car the defendant ordered a 600mm x 100m roll of self-adhesive carpet protector film from Amazon, which was shipped to his home address on Mar 1. That was found when the police searched the property following his arrest.
"Some of it had been used and given the temporal proximity of the order to the hiring of the car the proper inference to draw is that it was intended to be used and was used during the course of the kidnap."
On Dec 2, 2020, the defendant set up a profile for himself on the internet-based dating site “match.com”, using his middle name “Antony”. He gave various false details about himself, that he was separated, had no dependent children, living in Canterbury, and gave his date of birth as Feb 23, 1972.
In early February 2021, the defendant was in contact with an escort with username "escourtbabygirl" through the Adult Work Escort Service.
The Crown is now briefing the court on Couzens' work equipment.
Mr Little said: "It was not unusual for officers on PaDP to take personal protective and other equipment (including body armour and handcuffs) home with them from the Lillie Road base - they were required to undertake frequent training, at a number of different locations, to which they would travel directly.
"For convenience, they would often take home the kit needed.
"Two members of the public had independently noticed seeing the defendant when he was not on duty wearing his Police belt with handcuffs and a rectangular black pouch (similar to a pepper spray holder) attached to it (whilst out in Deal walking his dog; and when attending a local computer hardware repair shop in the town).
"This is the type of equipment that it can be inferred that the defendant was wearing when he kidnapped Sarah Everard.
"It is instructive that in relation to the incident in the repair shop that when the owner asked the defendant jokingly if he was "into kinky stuff" when he referred to the handcuffs that were visible on the defendant’s belt. The defendant said "I am an undercover police officer".
"As he said that the defendant chuckled but then opened his jacket a little more to reveal his Police issue kit."
The defendant was involved in a dispute with the Metropolitan Police over his pay scale. He talked freely to colleagues about this, and the fact that he was hoping to obtain legal assistance in the near future.
He had not discussed any other financial problems with colleagues. Most of his colleagues had the impression that he was a “family man”, the Crown said.
In late January 2021, the defendant worked with other officers on Covid patrols. These were Uniformed Covid patrols in which the Covid regulations were enforced.
Mr Little told the Old Bailey: "The defendant undertook a couple of such shifts. He was therefore aware of the regulations and what language to use to those who may have breached them."
At some point after 2002 the defendant joined the Kent Special Constabulary, before joining the Civil Nuclear Constabulary in 2011. In September 2018, he joined the Metropolitan Police.
In Feb 2020, the defendant began working for the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command (PaDP), as an Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO), working at various diplomatic premises around Central London.
He was issued with a number of items of police uniform and equipment, including body armour and a set of rigid handcuffs (with a unique serial number 47181).
The defendant was part of a 14-PC team within the PaDP Command, based at Lillie Road, West Brompton.
During the latter part of 2020, he was not able to carry a firearm and had undertaken office-based work for several months, as a result of having sustained a finger injury in July 2020, which he told work colleagues had been caused during a drilling accident.
He was assessed as being fit for full duties in December 2020, and was due to return to Team A in January 2021.
In the summer of 2019 the defendant and his wife purchased a 0.36-acre plot of woodland called Sparrow Wood in Hoads Wood, Mr Little told the court.
The memorandum for the sale described it as "perfect for day trips" and for those with an interest in woodland wildlife.
It is five miles to the west of Ashford, Kent, just off Fridd Lane.
Mr Little said: "The defendant’s plot of land is very close to - and in the same woods that he was to burn Sarah Everard’s body after he had murdered her.
"He then moved her body in green bags that he had purchased specifically for that task to a pond deeper into the woods but which was only about 130m from his plot."
Wayne Couzens was born on Dec 20, 1972, making him 48-years-old.
He married in 2006, and has two children. They lived together in Freemens Way in Deal.
He had a Galaxy handset on the Vodafone network and a Samsung Galaxy watch.
Mr Little told the Old Bailey: "In relation to finances at the material time his bank accounts were generally overdrawn only being brought into credit for short periods either by wages paid in and/or the use of short term payday loans.
"He had a total debt of just under ￡29,000 with a number of financial institutions, which were the subject of a debt management plan agreed in Oct 2020 with a debt management company, Payplan, with agreed monthly repayments of ￡235.
"As at March 2021, the defendant also had a credit card account with NatWest which was in debt (￡3460.70); and a PayPal credit card account which was also in debt (￡1580.27); both of which had debt payment plans in place to make minimum monthly payments."
Tom Little QC is setting out some details on the victim.
"Sarah Everard was 33-years-old at the time of her death. She lived in Craster Road, London, SW2, " he said.
"She had an Apple iPhone. The network provider was EE. That mobile telephone was thrown into the flood relief channel in Sandwich by the defendant within hours of murdering her. A broken fragment of an EE sim card from
"Sarah Everard’s mobile telephone was found in the defendant’s Seat motor vehicle.
"He must have removed it from the telephone and tried to destroy it, having taken her phone from her.
"Sarah Everard had worked in marketing since graduating from Durham University in 2008.
"A former long-term boyfriend described her as "extremely intelligent, savvy and streetwise", and "not a gullible person".
"He could not envisage her getting into a vehicle with someone unknown unless by force or by manipulation. As the evidence reveals that is precisely what happened."
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has opened the case for sentencing. Tom Little QC says: "Sarah Everard’s disappearance on the evening of March 3, 2021 led to one of the most widely publicised missing person investigations this country has seen.
"In the days that followed and then after the discovery of her body in an area of woodland in Kent on Mar 10 2021 (with the arrest of the defendant, a serving Police officer, the day before) what had taken place became widely summarised on social media as #shewasonlywalkinghome.
"That is true. Sarah Everard was only walking home when she was taken off the street from her family, friends and colleagues by the defendant on the evening of Mar 3 2021.
"However, those five words do not fairly or completely begin to describe what happened to her and her body at the hands of the defendant in the hours and days that followed her kidnap.
"Whilst it is impossible to summarise what the defendant did to Sarah Everard in just five words if it had to be done then it would be more appropriate to do so as deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire.
Scotland Yard have just released this statement.
The police watchdog has received a string of referrals relating to the Couzens case, with 12 police officers being investigated.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it was looking at whether the Met failed to investigate two allegations of indecent exposure relating to Couzens in February, just days before the killing.
Kent Police are also being investigated over their response to a third allegation of indecent exposure dating back to 2015.
The case has prompted renewed concern about police recruitment checks and why Couzens continued to hold a warrant card, despite the allegations of sexual offences.
Scotland Yard has said there was no information available at the time that would have altered the vetting decision in his case.
Speaking outside the Old Bailey in July, Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said she was "very sorry" for the loss, pain and suffering of the Everard family.
She said: "All of us in the Met are sickened, angered and devastated by this man's truly dreadful crimes. Everyone in policing feels betrayed."
Prosecutor Tom Little QC will open the case, revealing more information about how Ms Everard met her death and how police tracked down the culprit.
Couzens's lawyer Jim Sturman QC is then expected to offer mitigation on behalf of the defendant.
Before handing down his sentence on Thursday, Lord Justice Fulford will consider a whole life order, which could mean Couzens may never be released from prison.
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