Wayne Couzens

MOnica I too have been thinking about his children, if he has
a son he can change his name but does he remain silent about
his father when/if he marries.

Anniebach

His colleagues were male and female.

Should Cressida Dick be expected to vet 32,920 police officers ?

Well people have to be vetted in other lines of work. My husband has to have DV security clearance for his job and they ask you whole manner of questions and statements, including that of a sexual nature. You are encouraged to be as open as you can be. Maybe I am naive as I thought similar vetting processes happened in the police too.

There are other innocent victims of this crime. The children of Wayne Couzens, who will grow up fatherless and knowing that their father committed such a heinous crime.

Sarah Everard's parents, friends and family can talk of their loss and rightly have the sympathy of everyone. Couzens' children will have to hide away, move house, go to new schools, possibly change their names. When he killed Sarah Everard, he also killed his children and sentenced them to a life of silence lies and subterfuge so that no one ever knows who their father is.

Urmstongran

Am I alone in feeling uncomfortable that Couzens is wished ill in prison? Reading such comments makes me feel uneasy.

His punishment has been metered out. It is severe. He will never be allowed out of prison. He will die in there. He has no hope of parole. Surely that is enough? None of us can imagine the loss of our freedoms in this harshest of ways.

Excellent post Urmstongran.

It's not harsh, which implies that it's unfair - he's rightly been given the severest sentence.

However I don't wish to see him roughed-up in prison, that serves no purpose and evokes the law of the jungle. And it's likely any perpetrator would also have a history of violence.

I agree Urmstongran. And I hate him.

We have to challenge the hackneyed phrase “hiding in plain sight”. We know that Wayne Couzens, Jimmy Saville and their kind weren’t hiding, they were openly showing what they were. Others were covering up, colluding with, or “hiding” what these men were.

Am I alone in feeling uncomfortable that Couzens is wished ill in prison? Reading such comments makes me feel uneasy.

His punishment has been metered out. It is severe. He will never be allowed out of prison. He will die in there. He has no hope of parole. Surely that is enough? None of us can imagine the loss of our freedoms in this harshest of ways.

His colleagues were male and female.

Should Cressida Dick be expected to vet 32,920 police officers ?

Cressida must go. in my opinion

I am just listening to the advice given by the police if arrested by a lone officer. Flag down a bus, make your own enquiries, sorry but they are talking utter nonsense .

He was part of the elite Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection squad and on duty at the US embassy just before Sarah Everard's disappearance.

How he ever go through the vetting to be an armed officer heaven knows.

I understood that process to be the most stringent of the vetting procedures.

I wonder if some of his colleagues had reported his behaviour to HR over the years? This need not have happened, there were so warning signs. Tragic.

Visgir1

Wonder how long he will last in a Prison? Ex Policeman, Rapist and Murderer??

I hope he has a long, long time in prison in fear and misery every second of his life. What I find very concerning is that Couzens was nicknamed 'The Rapist'. There must have been a reason for that, surely. Nobody thought to look into that? In a huge organisation like the police it stands to reason there will be a few bad apples but this case shows up an acceptance of men like Couzens and a 'laddish' culture within the police. Couzens was seen as a bit of a laugh, exposing himself to female McDonald's staff, just days before poor Sarah encountered him. Other police officers were with him but didn't report this to their superiors. Why was that? Whistleblowing not appreciated? Dobbing in Wayne who is always up for a laugh? Now there are ongoing enquiries into it all. Horses and stable doors come to mind. Everything surrounding this case needs to be stringently investigated and a more robust vetting process put in place. I hope Cressida Dick is up to it.

LucyLocket55

The family’s impact statements had me in tears, those poor, poor people and their lovely daughter. That evil man …

However, there but for the grace of God go I. 12 years ago my elder daughter (aged 23) drove to see a friend in London, in the time of clunky sat navs. She took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a less than salubrious area, she was waiting at a traffic lights when her car was bumped from behind. Two men got out and told her that she needed to pull round the corner so they could sort this out. She felt something was not right so she locked the doors and they started banging on the door and roof and shouting at her to go round the corner. A car going the opposite way stopped and a man got out, he was an off duty policeman who took control, and the two men fled. He then escorted my daughter to her friends house and the next day she found a note under her windscreen saying if she was worried about anything to contact his police station.

I still thank God for that policeman..

... reading what happened to your daughter made my blood run cold.

What a traumatic experience. It must still haunt her. But at least she's now probably very conscious of the danger out there.

I was once driving home late from the office, alone. The route involved a long and narrow isolated country lane (in Surrey) and I was keeping the speed limit of 50 when a car sped up behind me. I could see through my mirror that it was a man (he was that close) and I increased my speed to get away from him - he did the same. In the end I was doing 70 along this narrow deserted road (I'd only recently passed my test) and was scared out of my wits... at 70 he was still almost touching my bumper. When I reached the end of the lane and entered the village I lived in he continued along a different route.
I will never know whether he was simply an impatient driver (he could see I was a woman because I had long hair at the time) or whether he intended harm. I suspect the latter - because impatient drivers usually honk their horns at you when you've finally got out of their way. He didn't.
It haunts me to this day and it was over 30 years ago, it's nothing compared to what happened to your daughter, so I can imagine that she still thinks about what might have happened.
Just how much longer are women going to have to put up with male aggression and violence!

MaizieD

He isn't the only bad apple.

I think it's time that Cressida Dick resigned.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/20/revealed-the-grim-list-of-sex-abuse-claims-against-metropolitan-police

Labour MP Harriet Harman agrees with you MaizieD.
So do I.

He is legally entitled to be kept safe in prison, and I do know a prison officer who says there are ways around that.
I presume it's a procedure that is increasingly under scrutiny, so that inmates don't accidentally get beaten up, if they're lucky, and worse, if not.

Will he have a hard time though ? or will he be put in some kind of protection or sick wing or something not convinced he ll be ‘p allowed to be ‘ got at’

Change the laws. Police patrol in pairs at all times. It happens in Scotland.

I hope he rots in prison and he'll certainly have a hard time in there. We all trust the Police or at least I always used to feel like that. Something like this case makes you think who can we really trust.

It depends on the two people, though.
It doesn't bear thinking about.

I dont think it's fair to place that responsibility on the public to be honest, surely it would be better to say that there needs to be two people present when apprehending a woman or perhaps that's not practical.

Sparklefizz

I cried at the victim statements. So so awful.

Me too Sparklefizz.
What a vile and evil crime. A Devil in sheep's clothing. The poor girl didn't have a chance.

Apparently Wayne Couzens was spotted by someone (a couple?) making the false arrest and handcuffing the poor girl, but assumed it was a plain clothed policeman in an unmarked police car and that she had 'done something wrong'.

We have been discussing whether we would have also 'passed by on the other side' in similar circumstances.

I wonder whether this incident has made anyone more aware of possible outcomes and whether they would now challenge, follow up with a phone call to police, photograph what they were witnessing?

I think I may be now more inclined to follow through my concerns.

Even reading that made my heart thump!
How frightening.