Sarah Everard: Murdering cop Wayne Couzens 'should never have been a police officer'

The police officer who murderer Sarah Everard should never have been allowed to stay on the force, a new report says.

Wayne Couzens was dangerous and the police 'repeatedly failed' to spot warning signs about him, it says. It comes amid fears many more women and girls could have been victims of Couzens.

Publishing her findings on Thursday, inquiry chairwoman Lady Elish Angiolini warned without a radical overhaul of policing practices and culture, there is "nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight".

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Three different police forces "could and should" have stopped Couzens from getting a job as an officer, she said, as she identified a catalogue of failings in how he was recruited and vetted, and how allegations against him were investigated.

Miss Everard's family said in response they believe the 33-year-old marketing executive died because Couzens was a police officer, adding: "She would never have got into a stranger's car."

Branding Couzens a "predatory sex offender and murderer", the inquiry laid bare a history of alleged sexual offending dating back nearly 20 years before the off-duty armed Metropolitan Police officer abducted Miss Everard in March 2021.

According to the report, over the last two years the inquiry uncovered evidence Couzens was accused of a string of other incidents of sexual abuse, including a "very serious sexual assault of a child barely into her teens".

The findings identified at least five incidents which were not reported to police, with Lady Elish saying she believes there could be more victims.

Setting out a raft of recommendations to "make sure something like this can never happen