‘Another Wayne Couzens could be hiding in plain sight,’ report finds as eight times he was reported to cops are revealed

AN INQUIRY has found without a radical overhaul of policing practices and culture there is "nothing to stop another Wayne Couzens operating in plain sight".

Couzens' history of alleged sexual offending went back nearly 20 years before he committed Sarah Everard's murder, according to the Angiolini Inquiry.

The report set out how red flags, including eight times he was reported to cops, were missed as Couzens served with three different police forces across several years.

Inquiry chairwoman Lady Elish Angiolini warned: "Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer.

"And, without a significant overhaul, there is nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight."

He is accused of having sexually assaulted a girl, barely in her teens, while he was in his early 20s before he joined Kent Police as a special constable in 2006.

The damning report also reveals...

• Couzens allegedly carried out a "very serious sexual assault" on a young girl while he was in his 20s
• He was also accused of attempting to kidnap a woman at knifepoint in North London back in 1995
• The father-of-two was further accused by two women of raping them
• One of the complainants alleged Couzens attacked her between late 2006 and early 2007 during a singles dating event at an East London bar
• The other claimed she was raped by Couzens under a bridge in London in October 2019
• In the summer of that year a man in drag wearing a blonde wig claimed Couzens inappropriately touched him in a Kent bar

The inquiry team found there were instances where he showed extreme violent indecent videos to friends and police colleagues, in a move to test their boundaries.

He was also found to have sent unsolicited images of his genitals to women, was accused of sexual touching and there are claims he possessed indecent images of children.

The inquiry found he paid women online to masturbate on clothes and send them to him.

Both Kent and the Metropolitan Police were criticised for inadequate investigations into claims of indecent exposure against Couzens.

There was a series of incidents where he was accused of flashing - three of which he was sentenced for last year, despite already having received a whole life jail term for Sarah's murder.

These were masturbating in front of a lone female cyclist in a Kent country lane in 2020, and twice exposing his genitals to staff at a fast-food restaurant in February 2021 in the days before Sarah's murder.

He drove his own car and used his own credit card at the outlet but no action was taken at the time, with investigating officer Pc Samantha Lee later sacked for failing to investigate properly.

Another two similar incidents at the fast-food restaurant were ordered to lie on file, and there were two incidents in 2008 and 2021 that were reported to the Met and Kent Police respectively at the time when Couzens allegedly exposed himself, but there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

In 2015, a member of the public reported having seen a man driving around in Kent with his genitalia exposed, giving the make, model, colour and registration number of the car.

Couzens was identified as the keeper of the car but Kent Police closed the investigation with no further action and without even speaking to him.

Lady Elish Angiolini said: "This was a grave error and a very obvious red flag.

"By failing to properly investigate the allegation, Kent Police missed a valuable opportunity to disrupt or even prevent Couzens's future offending and to bring into question his position as an authorised firearms officer with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary."

A further incident where Couzens was allegedly seen masturbating with intent to shock a passerby in 2004 was reported to the Met after Sarah's murder, but there was not enough evidence to bring a charge.

Lady Elish called for indecent exposure to be taken more seriously and for victims to be encouraged to report crimes.

"The inquiry was struck by the similarities in approach between the investigations in relation to the June 2015 allegation and the 2021 drive-through restaurant offences.

"Both seemed destined to fail from the start, involving poor recording and decision-making and lacking the positive steps that could potentially have led to the identification of the suspect and detection of the crime.

"Rather than embarking on a process of detailed, thorough and time-consuming evidence gathering, the officers displayed apathy and disinterest and found reasons not to pursue the cases."

Lady Elish has called for an immediate review of indecent exposure allegations against serving police officers.

The inquiry said Couzens made "hunting trips" while driving around London before Sarah's murder, including one of the indecent exposure incidents at the fast-food restaurant.

It found there was "a trajectory of escalating risk of contact sexual violence by Couzens", and such crimes should be considered by investigators or those doing vetting as a red flag.

Kent Police said: "We accept our investigation into a 2015 incident of indecent exposure was flawed due to it being allocated to an officer who was not a trained investigator, and apologise for this failing."