Wayne Couzens: Met Police officer who murdered Sarah Everard given 19 months for indecent exposure

The Met Police officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard has been given a further jail term for previous indecent exposure offences.

Wayne Couzens, who was a serving officer at the time of the offences, has been sentenced on three counts.

Couzens is already serving life and he appeared at the Old Bailet on Monday (March 6) via video link.

He was sentenced by the judge, Mrs Justice May, to a further 19 months in prison.

Couzens snatched Ms Everard as she was walking home in March 2021. He raped and murdered her.

Following his conviction, Couzens, formely of Deal in Kent, was charged with indecent exposure. He pleaded guilty to three counts in February.

The three indecent exposure incidents took place between November 2020 and February 2021. On November 13 2020, Couzens stepped out of a rural wodded area in Deal naked, and masturbated as a female cyclist passed.

Justice May said: “She was scared and shaken, and could do nothing but cycle past, up the hill, as fast as she was able.”

The victim noticed a black car parked 50 metres away, and recalled a partial number plate.

Justice May said: “The fact that no police came to find him or his black car to question him about these incidents can only have served to confirm and strengthen in the defendant’s mind a dangerous belief in his invincibility, in his power sexually to dominate and abuse women without being stopped.”

An independent inquiry will investigate Couzens’ previous offending and will examine whether chances were missed to bring him to justice sooner.