Image source, Everard Family

We're bringing our live updates to a close this evening but the website will continue to bring you the latest updates here. This is what has happened today:

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the public should trust the police despite the Sarah Everard case
• But he says that the government must get to the bottom of "what on earth" happened and should come down hard on issues in the police
• Killer Wayne Couzens is believed to have been in a WhatsApp group with five police officers who are being investigated for gross misconduct relating to misogynist content
• There have been calls for Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to resign over the handling of the case, although policing minister Kit Malthouse and London Mayor Sadiq Khan have backed her
• The force has issued advice to women who are stopped by lone plain-clothes officers, which includes asking "searching questions" and running to a house if they believe they are in imminent danger
• Campaigners and politicians have criticised the guidance with some calling it "victim shaming" while others described it as "laughable"
• Meanwhile, Labour MP Yvette Cooper has called for an independent inquiry, while Conservative MP Sir Bob Neill says there is a case for classing misogyny as a hate crime

Thank you for joining us this afternoon. This live page has been edited by Holly Wallis and Chris Clayton and written by Jennifer Meierhans, Victoria Lindrea and Doug Faulkner.

Image source, get

Women have been asking how they should react if they are stopped by a lone police officer.

It comes after Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life prison term for the murder of Sarah Everard.

Couzens kidnapped, raped and killed Sarah after using his police ID to falsely detain her.

So how can you determine is an officer is genuine and his motives legitimate?

"If someone who says they are a police officer stops you, it can be difficult to know what to do," says human rights barrister Adam Wagner.

He says an officer arresting you should:

• Tell you their name and which police station they are from
• Show you their warrant card
• Give you a summary of why they are arresting you and what crime they think you have committed

Officers on the streets now almost always have body-worn video cameras, external, which are used to capture evidence when attending incidents or arresting someone.

They also act as a safeguard for both the person being stopped and the officer in the event of a dispute.

Find out more.

Image source, Conservative Party

North Yorkshire's police, fire and crime commissioner has been criticised after he said women "need to be streetwise" about powers of arrest in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder.

Speaking about the case, Conservative Philip Allott told BBC Radio York she "never should have submitted" to the arrest.

He says women should be aware of "when they can be arrested and when they can't be" - pointing out that a breach of Covid guidelines - which Wayne Couzens is thought to have used to trick Ms Everard - is not an indictable offence.

"Perhaps women need to consider in terms of the legal process, to just learn a bit about that legal process," he said.

But Lucy Arnold, from campaign group Reclaim the Streets, said his comments were "horrifically offensive".

"Does anyone really feel like they can stand up to a police officer?" she said.

"I am very confident I know my rights, I know the law, but no I wouldn't feel confident at all."

The police, fire and crime commissioner has now apologised saying he wishes to retract the comments and realised they may have been offensive.

The prime minister is urging the public to trust the police but he acknowledges the government needs to get to the bottom of how a serving officer could kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.

Boris Johnson says the "snarled up" justice system needs "fixing", with "too few prosecutions" and "too few successful convictions" of rape.

Speaking from Downing Street this afternoon, the prime minister says there will be hundreds of thousands of police officers up and down the country who will be "absolutely heart sick" by what has happened in the case of Sarah Everard.

He says he does believe in the police and says that they do a "wonderful job".

But he says the government needs to get to the bottom of "what on earth" happened and ensure nothing like it happens again.

Johnson says the whole justice system is proving a "nightmare" for the women concerned and needs "speeding up".

"There is a problem in the way we handle rape, domestic violence, sexual violence and the away we handle complaints of women and girls," he says. "The problem is we have too few prosecutions for rape and too few successful convictions. We've got to fix it."

He adds he brought the Crime and Justice Taskforce together on Thursday to look at compressing the timetable between complaints and action which, he says, is "far too long" at the moment.

You can read more here.

Women's group have called on the police "to root out the misogyny" instead of asking women to alter their behaviour - following suggestions over what action the public should take if they fear an officer is not acting legitimately.

Refuge chief executive Ruth Davison said: "Time and again, the Metropolitan Police have responded to incidents of gender-based violence by telling women to change their behaviour.

"Time and again, the responsibility is placed on women to protect themselves.

"This is simply not good enough. Police forces across the country must be prepared for a fundamental shift and overhaul in their attitudes towards women and root out the misogyny that is at the heart of these failings.A spokeswoman for Solace Women's Aid said: "Any man intent on causing serious harm or murder is unlikely to stop in their tracks if asked some probing questions, even more so a police officer who is in a position of power.

"Instead of deflecting responsibility on to women and creating guidelines to moderate their behaviour to keep themselves safe, the police need to say what they are going to do to address systemic misogyny in their own ranks and to rebuild trust with women."

Similarities to Lawrence inquiry as Met faces existential crisispublished at 16:48 British Summer Time 1 October 2021

16:48 BST 1 October 2021

Dominic Casciani
Home and Legal Affairs Correspondent

The Metropolitan Police has issued some extraordinary guidance to try to reassure women.

The force has said if you are approached by an officer in the street and are worried, ask them where they have come from, why they are there, exactly why they’ve stopped you, where their colleagues are.

Ask to speak to the operator on their radio and - in an extreme situation – consider running away, going into a house and dialing 999.

The fact that the Metropolitan Police feels it needs to issue such unprecedented words, reminiscent of the "Run, Hide, Tell" counter-terrorism PR campaign, reveals the depths of the existential crisis the force is now experiencing in the wake of the Couzens’ betrayal.

Last night when reporters were at Scotland Yard, it was clear to all of us listening to Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave that this was a moment of absolute horror for him as a police leader.

At times he was on the verge of tears – but critics say that amid the genuine emotion they want to see action.

In 1998 the Metropolitan Police was rocked when the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence branded the force institutionally racist.

There was shock – but also denial that there were wider problems that needed to be fixed.

For many police critics today this moment feels very, very similar.

The court heard how Wayne Couzens used the knowledge he had gained from working on Covid patrols in January and his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card to trick his victim under the guise of a fake arrest for breaching coronavirus guidelines.

The 48-year-old, who had been a police officer since 2002, handcuffed her before bundling her into the car and driving away.

The abduction was witnessed by a couple travelling past in a car - but they believed they had seen an undercover police officer carrying out a legitimate arrest, so did not intervene.

The whole kidnapping took less than five minutes.

A CCTV timeline shows key evidence used to arrest and prosecute Wayne Couzens

Image source, PA Media

Wayne Couzens is believed to have been in a WhatsApp group with five police officers who are being investigated for gross misconduct.

The officers allegedly shared "discriminatory" messages - including misogynistic content.

Five serving officers and one former officer are under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for allegedly distributing messages between March and October 2019 which were discovered during Sarah Everard's murder investigation.

Three of them, including the ex-officer, are subject to criminal investigation for offences under Section 127 of the Communications Act, which refers to material that is "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".

Three of the serving officers and the ex-officer are from the Metropolitan Police, one is from Norfolk Constabulary, and one serves with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

Couzens raped and murdered Ms Everard while working for the Met, after kidnapping her in a fake arrest.

The London force faces questions over whether it missed chances to stop him, and has issued safety advice to women.

Sarah Everard’s murder should prompt an independent inquiry to examine the “wider questions” into the systems and culture in policing, says the chairwoman of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Yvette Cooper says “sorry is not enough” from the Metropolitan Police.

She told BBC News: “They won’t be able to rebuild trust unless they are open about the things that have gone wrong.

“That means we need an independent inquiry into this case, into why allegations weren’t followed up, into how such a dangerous man could be a police officer for such a long time.”

The Labour MP says there is “an epidemic of violence against women and girls” and that the Home Office needs to instruct forces across the country to make the issue part of the strategic policing requirement, “alongside terrorism and some of the most serious crimes.”

On guidance issued by the Metropolitan Police that anyone stopped by a lone plain clothes officer should check their credentials she says: “If it’s always about advice to women and not actually about changing the system then in the end you don’t rebuild trust.”

A former senior police officer has described the police service as"very sexist and misogynistic".

Ex-Met Ch Supt Parm Sandhu said female police officers fear reporting male colleagues as they worry they will be abandoned if they need help on duty.

Ms Sandhu, who served in the Met for 30 years, told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday: "A lot of women will not report their colleagues.

"What happens is that male police officers will then close ranks and the fear that most women police officers have got is that when you are calling for help, you press that emergency button or your radio, they're not going to turn up and you're going to get kicked in in the street.

"So you have got to be very careful which battles you can fight and which ones you can actually win."

Read more.

Scotland Yard's advice suggesting ways in which members of the public can check the legitimacy of a plain-clothes officer has also been criticised by some politicians.

"This completely derisory advice shows they're still not taking it seriously," tweeted Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy.

"And they wonder why trust is at an all-time low?" she added.

Ruth Davidson, former leader for the Scottish Conservatives, tweeted, external: "This is so grim. If someone believe they are in 'real and imminent danger' - **from a police officer** they've to flag down a bus or start chapping doors. Horrendous."

Image source, Reuters

Patsy Stevenson, who was arrested at the vigil for Sarah Everard in March, says the Metropolitan Police's suggestions of knocking on a door or waving a bus down are "almost laughable if it wasn't so disgusting".

She tells the PA news agency: "I feel like they are just clutching at straws, because the advice isn't relevant. It's like a distraction because, number one, in that situation, you can't just stop and hail down a bus or a taxi or something.

"Can you imagine the distrust that people have right now where they have to protect themselves from the police in that manner? That is shocking."

She says if someone had done something illegal it is the police giving them permission to run off, adding: "It doesn't make any sense. They could have been enacting change for ages now, but they haven't, and they're still not doing it, they're just putting out a statement to quieten people down."

The force has advised anyone who is concerned a police officer is not acting legitimately during an interaction to ask where the officer's colleagues are; where they have come from; why they are there; and exactly why they are stopping or talking to them.

Anyone could verify the police officer by asking to hear their radio operator or asking to speak to the radio operator themselves, the force says, also suggesting that people who are concerned can shout out to a passer-by, run into a house, knock on a door, wave a bus down, or call 999.

Stevenson is currently involved in legal action against the Metropolitan Police over its actions at the 13 March vigil.

The justice select committee chairman also suggests that misogyny could be made a hate crime, in the light of the Sarah Everard case.

“Maybe we should look again at making misogyny a hate crime," Sir Bob Neill tells Radio 4's The World at One.

"We've made racism [and] racially motivated offences a hate crime - I think there is a case for looking at misogyny.”

Image source, PA Media

Sir Bob Neill, the Conservative chairman of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, also says he does not believe Dame Cressida Dick should go.

"I don't think that knee-jerk reactions and calling for resignations are the answer," he tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.

"There have been errors and the Met Police has some serious questions it needs to answer but I think that actually concentrating one one individual does not actually deal with the serious point which is the failures that clearly took place in terms of vetting of this man, the failures that took place in incidences which took place while he was which were not called out... and also a very clear strategy from the Met and all other police forces about reassurances to young woman that a) their safety is taken properly and b) that the police will be patrolling in a way which does not give the opportunity for the sort of awful abuse."

He says there will be hundreds of really good police officers out there who will feel "kicked in the teeth" by Wayne Couzens' behaviour.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan gives his backing to Dame Cressida Dick as Met commissioner.

He says he is confident she is the "right person to bring about the transformation that is needed".

He adds the issue of violence against women and girls "won't be addressed by one officer".

"We've got to make sure the education our boys receive school is sorted out," he says. "How is it right, that girls in school [are] having to change their behaviour, because [of] the behaviour of boys.

"Misogyny this should be a hate crime. The harassing a woman in a public place should be a criminal offence."

Khan adds it is unacceptable for police officers "not just to be saying things that are racist, homophobic misogynistic, but to be silent if they're said in their presence".

He adds that policing is done by consent and says "one of the things about this awful case is a sense of betrayal, shock, horrible so shame, because he was a serving police officer".

Woman's Hour

Victims' Commissioner Dame Vera Baird told Woman's Hour that female victims' faith in policing has collapsed.

Dame Vera, who promotes the rights of victims of crime, said while the Everard case had brought the issue of how the police handle violence against women and girls to the fore, it was not a new problem.

"We did a survey a year ago which showed that only 5% of rape complainants thought they could get justice by going to the police... so this collapse is at its worst now, but it is not a new thing."

"There is really very little faith by women in how the police deal with violence against women and girls."

"One has to look at the real problem that, probably, inate sexism runs through the police, probably, more deeply than it runs through society."

Dame Vera said, by nature, policing remained "very male", adding: "There is no critical mass of female officers to change the culture."

An MP and former police officer says Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick “should be considering her position”.

Wendy Chamberlain, Liberal Democrat MP North East Fife, says the force needs to regain trust and Dick is “not the right person to take that work forward”.

She says she feels “almost a sense of shame” that trust in the police has been “significantly eroded”.

She says in her experience as a police officer there was a "canteen culture, the way of dealing with the stresses, yes I think could be described as misogynistic in nature".

“And clearly if that hasn’t changed in the 10 years since I served it remains a huge issue for the police service particularly when it comes to tackling violence against women and girls."

She says the Met Police’s pledge to put more officers on the street and advice on checking the credentials of lone plain clothes officers “sounds fairly knee jerk to me”.

Following the sentencing of Wayne Couzens yesterday - policing minister Kit Malthouse has told the BBC "officers up and down the land recognise the devastating consequences of this event".

"There is a job to be done to rebuild trust by the police, particularly, I have to say, in London," he told BBC Breakfast.

Couzens, a serving police officer in the Met, was handed a whole life sentence on Thursday for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, meaning he will never be freed from jail.

He abducted her in south London by staging a fake arrest.

The Met is facing questions as to how Couzens was able to get a job with the police, despite allegations made against him earlier in his career.

It has prompted a wider debate over whether police vetting rules are strict enough.

Mr Malthouse told BBC Breakfast: "One of the lessons that we will need to learn is the allegations that were made against him - where those investigations led to, why they did not pop up on his vetting or have any impact in his employment with the Metropolitan Police.

"That is currently under investigation."

Image source, Metropolitan Police

It was only during the sentencing of Wayne Couzens that the full details of his crimes emerged.

Couzens' choice of victim was random, but the attack was planned.

In his sentencing remarks, Lord Justice Fulford said there had been "significant planning and premeditation" by Couzens.

The police officer had "long planned to carry out a violent sexual assault on a yet-to-be-selected victim" who he intended to coerce into his custody, noted the judge.

Couzens spent at least a month travelling to London from Deal, Kent, where he lived, to research how best to carry out his crimes.

The BBC's Becky Morton details what Couzens did and how events unfolded on the night Sarah died.

Leroy Logan, a former Met Police officer and a founding member of the Black Police Association, tells BBC Radio 4's World At One programme that the number of sexual offences committed by officers is increasing.

He says it shows that both the vetting process is not being done properly and the force is attracting the wrong people.

"The supervisors - the sergeants and inspectors - what are they doing? Are they being complicit by their silence or are they somehow closing ranks?"

He adds that he believes Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick "has to go".

"We need a new fresh change to take the Met Police and the other constabularies to the future because at the moment it is going horribly wrong."