Sarah Everard detective struggles to find out how Met museum can ‘win back trust’

The Metropolitan Police is still grappling with how to “earn back trust” three years on from Sarah Everard’s death in 2021, the officer investigating her murder said.

DCI Katherine Goodwin spoke in BBC documentary Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice, which follows the investigation into the 33-year-old woman’s murder. The 33-year-old woman was kidnapped and murdered by Wayne Couzens while walking home in London.

The documentary revealed that Couzens was a serving Metropolitan Police officer after police discovered he was suspected of committing indecent exposure offenses in Kent days before Everard disappeared.

“At the time, the name Wayne Cousens meant nothing to any of us. So we immediately began researching the name, phone number and address he provided when he rented the car,” Goodwin said.

A team of officers was dispatched to Couzens’ home in Kent to question him, and while en route, a detective ran into Goodwin’s office, closed the door and told her: “You need to hear this.”

A researcher revealed by phone that Couzens was a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

“I knew I had to tell my boss, and I just remember the shock of sitting on the office floor and saying to her, ‘You’re not going to believe this, he’s a police officer,'” Goodwin said. Then the same question came to her mind as the same question came to my mind… “Are you sure?”

By Elish Angiolini A devastating official report published last week laid bare police failings, including catastrophic review flaws, that allowed Couzens to use his position as a police officer to kidnap and murder Ever Ladd.

“I think what bothers me the most is now that I’ve had a chance to think about how we can regain the public’s trust, I start to wonder how common this is,” Goodwin said.

The documentary took two-and-a-half years to make and includes CCTV footage, media reports and police interviews with Couzens during his arrest and detention. It was produced with input from Everard’s parents.

In the photo, a police officer interviews Cousens with a photo of Everard, saying: “People trust us to take care of them. People trust us to help them. You know, protect and serve, that’s what they say, Isn’t it? That’s what we’re here to do. We all took that oath, including you.”

The documentary follows Couzens’ experience serving in Kent – which initially failed the vetting process. The total offenses Couzens is accused of include two charges of rape, sexual assault of a girl and eight incidents of indecent exposure.

The first part of Angiolini’s three-part investigation found that Couzens should never have been hired as a police officer and held that police were responsible for his impunity. Angiolini has since written an article in the Observer calling for a change in the way police respond to cases of indecent exposure and for a dedicated policy to investigate all sexual offenses within the force to prevent another “Cousin in plain sight” incident. Take action.”

“It’s not often that a case sparks a national conversation,” said Labor MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy. “But it’s much bigger than what we’re seeing in the police. It’s what we’re seeing across society in terms of how violence against women and girls are treated more generally.” In the past 12 months, 98 people in the UK have Women were killed by men.

Kent Police said: “We acknowledge that there were shortcomings in our investigation into the 2015 report of indecent exposure and we apologize for this. Kent Police are appalled by the crimes committed by Sarah Everard. We fully accept that Angio Recommendations of the Rini Inquiry Report.”