Killer cop Wayne Couzens used his police belt to strangle Sarah Everard after luring her off street in fake arrest
MONSTER Wayne Couzens used his police belt to strangle Sarah Everard after he lured her off the street during a fake arrest.
The Met Police officer was wearing the belt when he handcuffed the 33-year-old claiming she had breached Covid rules.
After driving Sarah for 50 miles from London to Dover, Couzens then strangled her with it.
The court was shown pictures of the police issued belt that the twisted officer was wearing when he forced Sarah into the vehicle.
His handcuffs which he used to incapacitate her, also owned by the Met Police, were also shown.
The grim detail emerged as Couzens is sentenced for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah.
The Old Bailey today heard how Couzens used his warrant card to lure Sarah into a rental car as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham by claiming he was on a Covid patrol.
He then raped her in his own vehicle and murdered her before burning her body in a fly-tipped fridge.
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Couzens put her charred remains in green rubble bags on a plot of land he bought in 2019 that he described as "perfect for a day out".
He then dumped her body in a pond before helping himself to a hot chocolate with coconut milk and a bakewell tart from Costa just hours after the murder.
Sarah's body had to be identified by dental records after being found a week later more than 50 miles away in Ashford, Kent.
Despite being badly burnt, she was still wearing a necklace and gold earring.
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Blood was later discovered in Couzens' car along with a broken fragment of Sarah's sim card, three clear plastic gloves and a handcuff key.
Police also found two black-coloured Velcro straps attached to one another to form a loop, a craft knife, a head torch on an elasticated band and an unused condom.
A penis pump, a roll of adhesive film, a petrol can, boxes of latex gloves, a police badge and plastic cuffs were seized from his home.
After he was arrested, Couzens spun a shameless web of lies - claiming he had "no choice" but to kidnap Sarah, who was a stranger to him, for a human trafficking gang.
He was repeatedly asked if he knew where Sarah was as her "family and friends are worried about her".
But the sicko said: "If I could do something to get her back this minute, I would.
"I'll do it again tomorrow if it meant saving my family... these guys meant business."
KILLING KIT
The dad-of-two then suggested the gang had murdered Sarah - even though her body was discovered on land he owned.
In reality, Couzens had hatched a ghastly plot to travel to London and abduct a woman.
On February 28 he rented the car used to snatch Sarah using his name, address and two different mobile phones.
Minutes later, he bought a 600mm by 100mm roll of self-adhesive film from Amazon to use in the attack.
On the night he took Sarah, the cop was seen on CCTV buying hairbands he used in the horror.
As part of his grim killing kit, the monster also purchased carpet protector, tarpaulin, and a cargo net on March 7.
And Couzens was seen buying two large green rubble bags from B&Q on March 5 - the same day he called his work to say he was "suffering from stress" and was unable to work.
BRUTAL MURDER
While in custody, Couzens deliberately hit his head on the toilet bowl in his prison cell shortly before his interview was due to take place.
He then wounded himself a second time when he intentionally ran into a wall - badly cutting his head.
But the gun cop, who joined the Met Police in 2018, was charged with kidnap and murder more than a week after Sarah first vanished.
The cop, who worked on the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command unit, had finished a shift earlier on the morning of March 3 and was not on duty at the time of Sarah's disappearance.
Despite wiping his phone, data on the device linked Couzens to the abduction and eventually the area where Sarah was found.
Questions are now mounting over why Couzens was even still on the force following a wave of indecent exposure claims made against him.
Shockingly, Couzens was not given enhanced vetting when he joined the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit in February 2020.
This was despite colleagues in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, where he worked before the Metropolitan Police, nicknaming him The Rapist.
Twelve police officers are being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct for gross misconduct over matters relating to the case.
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The watchdog is probing whether the Met failed to investigate two allegations of indecent exposure relating to Couzens just four days before he took Sarah.
A separate investigation is also ongoing into claims Kent Police failed to follow up on an allegation of indecent exposure in Dover in 2015.
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The Met issued a statement today ahead of the hearing, saying they are "sickened, angered and devastated" by Couzens' actions.
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