UK POLICE OFFICER COMMITTED “HORRIFIC CRIMES” AS A RESULT OF “SYSTEMIC FAILINGS”

Sarah Everard and Wayne Couzens pictured moments before he abducted her in Clapham.

Fri 01 March 2024:

An inquiry into a former British police officer who abducted, raped, and murdered a woman found that failures in police recruitment and vetting had allowed him to commit these “horrific crimes.”

Wayne Couzens, a serving Metropolitan Police (Met) officer at the time, was convicted of the rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard in 2021 and is currently serving a full life sentence in prison.

UK POLICE OFFICER SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR MURDER, RAPE OF SARAH EVERARD

The first part of the Angiolini Inquiry, released on Thursday, looked into the timeline of Couzens’ career, decision-making relating to his vetting transfer between police forces, and his behavior towards women.

Elish Angiolini, who led the inquiry, said the evidence had shown that failures in police recruitment, vetting, and investigations into alleged indecent exposure meant “opportunities to disrupt Couzens’ offending and bring his policing career to a halt were missed.”

“Wayne Couzens was never fit to be a police officer,” Angiolini said. “And without a significant overhaul, there is nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight.”

BRITISH POLICE OFFICER CHARGED WITH SARAH EVERARD’S MURDER

Evidence found in the inquiry showed that Couzens was accused of several incidents of sexual abuse, including “a very serious sexual assault against a child barely in our teens” before becoming an officer.

The report pointed out that his preference for extreme and violent pornography, evidence of his alleged sexual offending, along with his unmanaged debt, date back nearly 20 years before Everard’s murder.

In response to the inquiry, Everard’s family said in a statement that “we believe that Sarah died because he was a police officer — she would never have got into a stranger’s car.”

REPORT FINDS LONDON’S MET POLICE ‘RACIST, MISOGYNIST, HOMOPHOBIC’

Britain’s Home Secretary James Cleverly said that Couzens is not a reflection on the majority of the police but Everard’s death “laid bare wider issues in policing and society that need to be urgently fixed.”

The report included 16 recommendations for improvements and work on other parts of the inquiry is currently underway.

“The report published today is an urgent call to action for all of us in policing. We must go further and faster, to earn back the trust of all those whose confidence in policing has been shaken by events of recent years,” London’s Met commissioner Mark Rowley said.

‘ABSOLUTELY SICKENED’: LONDON POLICE OFFICER COMMITTED MORE THAN 71 SERIOUS SEXUAL OFFENCES

Last year, another independent review of culture and standards within the Met found that there had been routine misogyny, deep-seated homophobia as well as institutional racism in the police force.

Up until last September, more than 1,000 Met officers had been suspended or on restricted duties due to alleged misconduct or such crimes as violence against women and girls.

-Xinhua

______________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

WhatsApp CHANNEL
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22