[ad_1]
LONDON: London police charged a colleague with kidnapping and murder on Friday (March 12), hours after confirming that the body discovered in a forest was that of a woman missing in a high-profile case that shocked Britain .
Wayne Couzens, 48, a serving officer with the Metropolitan Police’s elite diplomatic protection unit, was charged with killing 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard, the force said.
He disappeared while walking home to south London on the night of March 3, and Couzens’ arrest a week later sent shockwaves through the Met, and to the general public, and sparked an angry debate about the safety of women.
“Following a referral of evidence by the Metropolitan Police related to Sarah Everard’s death, the CPS has authorized the police to charge Wayne Couzens with murder and kidnapping,” Rosemary Ainslie of the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement. brief statement.
Couzens, who was first arrested Tuesday night in Kent, southeastern England, where he lives and Everand’s remains were found the next day, is due to appear in Westminster Magistrates Court on Saturday.
His indictment came several hours after police confirmed that the body, found in a wooded area in Ashford, Kent, on Wednesday night had been identified as Everard.
Authorities also revealed that Couzens had been re-admitted to hospital on Friday with a head injury, a day after being briefly hospitalized for a similar injury sustained while “alone in his cell.”
The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), a watchdog that handles police complaints, is investigating the Met’s handling of the case, including how Couzens ended up requiring hospital treatment.
The IOPC watchdog has said it will also investigate whether Met agents adequately responded to a charge of indecent exposure against them, which occurred several days before Everard’s disappearance.
It is alleged that it was exposed twice in a South London fast food restaurant on February 28.
Police said their investigation was ongoing and “drew on the experience and skills of hundreds of colleagues across the Met.”
“EXCEPTIONAL EVENTS”
The case has drawn widespread anger in the UK, and lawmaker Jess Phillips on Thursday read the names in parliament of 118 women and girls killed in Britain in the past year.
“Dead women is something that we have all accepted as part of our daily lives,” Phillips said, reading the names of victims whose murders involve an accused or convicted man.
“Murdered women are not extremely rare. Murdered women are common.”
In an unusual step, which the Met said it was taking “for the sake of clarity about these rare events,” officials revealed details about Couzens’ employment.
He joined the Met, Britain’s largest police force, in September 2018 and was assigned to a response team covering parts of south-east London.
He then went on to the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command, an armed unit, in February last year.
“Their main function was to patrol uniformed diplomatic facilities, mainly a number of embassies,” police said.
Meanwhile, vigils planned for Saturday in South London and elsewhere to honor Everard were called into question on Friday after a High Court judge refused to rule on the legal right to protest under the restrictions of the coronavirus.
Reclaim These Streets, a volunteer collective that plans socially distanced events, urged police to work with organizers to make sure it could move forward.
But the Met said the judge had reaffirmed the right of the police to conclude that large gatherings were currently illegal and urged people to “find a legal and safer way to express their opinions.”
