Wayne Couzens could have been arrested in 2015, says police watchdog

Wayne Couzens is serving a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021

Kent Police could have arrested Wayne Couzens in 2015, six years before he murdered Sarah Everard, documents released by the police watchdog showed.

A sergeant investigating an indecent exposure in Dover had Couzens' name and address and his car number plate, papers released by the Independent Office for Police Conduct say.

Couzens is serving a whole-life prison term for killing Ms Everard in 2021.

Kent Police said its investigation should have been better.

The IOPC released the papers after former Met Police officer Samantha Lee was found guilty of misconduct.

She had failed to properly investigate Couzens when he exposed himself at a McDonald's restaurant in Swanley in February 2021 and lied about not having been shown CCTV of his car hours before he murdered Ms Everard on 3 March 2021.

Sarah Everard was murdered by Couzens soon after the indecent exposure incidents

As proceedings against Lee concluded, the IOPC revealed how in 2015 a member of the public informed the force a man had driven past him in Dover wearing no clothing from the waist down.

The report revealed the sergeant that investigated the incident had Couzens' name and address, his number plate, the make and colour of the car, and an image of the driver from a roadside camera.

It also emerged Couzens had worked at the same police station as the investigating sergeant some years before, and the sergeant knew Couzens' brother who was also a police officer.

The sergeant said he didn't know Couzens but he had twice opened a computer file that said he had worked as a Kent Police special constable. The IOPC could not be certain, however, that the sergeant had actually read that information.

At that stage, Couzens was not arrested and the case was closed. Despite all the information, the sergeant said the suspect had not been identified and the offender was "unknown".

Samantha Lee had denied breaching Met Police standards in her investigation of Wayne Couzens

Kent Police said it referred itself to the IOPC over its handling of an indecent exposure allegedly committed by Couzens in Dover in 2015 and the watchdog referred the matter back to Kent to resolve internally.

At a misconduct meeting in 2023, it was concluded while the sergeant had breached professional standards, the officer's actions fell short of misconduct. It was agreed that the officer would be made subject to a Reflective Practice Review Process, which allows officers to learn from their actions and is not a formal disciplinary outcome.

Dep Ch Con Peter Ayling said: "Whilst the Kent Police officer who investigated the 2015 incident in Dover could never have predicted what Wayne Couzens would go on to do six years later, the investigation should still have been carried out to a better standard.

"It is important to note that we have revised our approach to investigating reports of indecent exposures, recognising the severe impact it can have on victims."

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