London Police Officer Pleads Guilty to the Murder of Sarah Everard

A Metropolitan Police officer has pleaded guilty to the murder of Sarah Everard.

Wayne Couzens, 48, pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape of 33-year-old Everard in June but did not enter a plea on the charge of murder at the time. 

But today, Couzens entered a guilty plea for murder in the Old Bailey in London. 

Everard, a marketing executive, went missing in March after walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London. Her body was discovered a week later in woodland in Kent. 

A postmortem revealed she died as a result of compression to the neck.

Couzens, who worked as a diplomatic protection officer in London, was arrested shortly after Everard went missing in what the Metropolitan Police described at the time as a “shocking and deeply disturbing” development. 

Everard’s disappearance sparked a national debate around violence against women. A vigil held in Clapham after the incident was met with aggressive policing, which a later inquiry found to breach “fundamental rights.”