UK UK - Sarah Everard, 33, London - Clapham Common area, 3 March 2021 *Arrests* #8

[Scorpiette]

The framing of the Evening Standard article also makes me wonder whether WC even knew he was under suspicion for the IE incident. He may have suspected that his car was caught on camera not sure (perhaps that’s why he started hiring a car) or he could have been wholly oblivious

Since the POI used to work with cars etc, I'm wondering if he carried around in the boot of his car a spare set of car number plates. Perhaps a set which cannot be detected by camera?

 

[Kalli]

I would be wary of using non-verified twitter posts here as a news source, they seem legit but we should err on the side of caution (think it's also in the ToS/WS guidance?). KentOnline or KentExpress seem like they're more reliable?

 

[Blackpool100]

Where is this microSD info from?

Sarah Everard: 'Murder suspect' Met officer found via CCTV from bus camera | Daily Mail Online

 

[Spiderplant]

As soon as he is charged there will be no more information about the case in MSM. There will be no leaks to the press published.

@Skigh will this include other possible offences if they come to light; do you know?

 

[Cherwell]

Wow thank you this is very interesting to know.
What happens if the suspect just continues to say ‘no comment’ the whole time? This is what he could possibly be doing right?
Or let’s suppose he’s confessed - they still don’t have to charge him so they continue to question him?

There is a limit to the length of time the police are allowed to hold a suspect. After that they must either charge them or release them. It's initially 24 hours, but they can apply for extensions up to a total of 96 hours.

 

[Alyce]

Where is this microSD info from?

Police who arrested Couzens are understood to have taken a memory card as part of their investigation.

Sarah Everard: Serving Met Police officer, 48, arrested over disappearance | Daily Mail Online

 

[Finders_Keepers]

I don’t usually like being an amateur psychologist but this has all the hallmarks of a rapid breakdown.

Im sceptical that he has an offending history as as I mentioned previously his job role would require immense vetting of his private life and I find it difficult to believe in this day and age someone who did wouldn’t have digital red flags...

The newspaper comments about colleagues noticing erratic behaviour, the closeness of the 2 only known incidents being days apart. The fact that I don’t think he has tried to cover this up particularly which suggests he was aware he might get caught or it was spontaneous (If you want to commit an unsolved murder you don’t take them off a busy London street when you live in secluded rural Kent). He may well have made some half hearted attempts to cover it up but being a police officer Id imagine he knew they would be unsuccessful.

Then you have the elephant in the room of one known self harm attempt and the mysterious ambulance at the property.

JMO but it points to a short term massive escalation in behaviour that had perhaps been previously surpressed just as much as he has decades old connections to other cases. Where he either knew or wanted to be caught and perhaps was unconcerned as he wasn’t planning on staying around for a trial. unfortunately for the victim if so it was wrong place wrong time

 

[Skigh]

@Skigh will this include other possible offences if they come to light; do you know?

To the best of my knowledge any new offences could be reported.
But I am willing to be corrected by anyone with police / legal knowledge.

 

[Spartacist]

This is correct. Once a suspect is charged, the police may not question them further.

People often think that if a suspect isn't charged right away there must be some problem, but the police will want to try and get as much information from them as possible, so they will delay charging until they feel they have got everything they can out of the suspect.

So this website seems to contradict what both you and @Commoner have said here:

You are right that the law did state that suspects that had been charged could no longer be questioned, but this has now been a change in the law that enables the police to question a suspect after they have been charged. This is to allow the police to continue their detailed investigations even after the suspect’s trial has begun. It is not unheard of for a trial to be stopped because the police have uncovered new evidence. The police continue to investigate, as it is always a possibility they are prosecuting an innocent person.​

 

[Stella123]

RIP Sarah and thoughts and prayers for her family and friends.

Re charging. I suspect they will want to keep questioning as long as they can - to see if he will confess when they tell him what they have found, ID'd body etc. Supposition and JMO Edit - just seen above post and this assumption based on the concept of no questioning after charging.

But also wonder if they want to delay to get him for other offences. Although seems that initial thoughts on here may have been correct - that the garage "crime scene" may have been used to make sure the body wasn't identifiable. And they are trying to get as much evidence as possible beyond murder - ie the horrific nature of it. Supposition and JMO

 

[Call_me_web_sloth]

Those that are asking when more info will become available on what may have happened to Sarah...

The answer is it could be quick or it could be a long time.

There's been a few cases where the cause of death, the toxicology reports and any kind of further investigation has taken a long time to come to light.

Again, I have no idea what condition Sarah's body is in but it sounds like it was relatively difficult to identify her which means it could take a while to figure out the cause of death. I hope not though, as horrifying as it is - her parents are going to need that closure.

 

[Binkacat]

I think not having yet interviewed someone /followed up a flashing report after a gap of only 3 or 4 days isn’t unusual. They may well have got a car reg but not necessarily looked into it enough to realise it was a police officer. In my experience of reporting this level of crime the crime is allocated to an officer, who has other stuff they’re dealing with as well, and if they then have a few days off due to shift pattern, etc nothing happens until they’re back.

Although possibly they’d got as far as making contact and requesting WC attend for an interview? Which could have caused an escalation in behaviour? Just MOO.

 

[BrianJohnson]

I don’t usually like being an amateur psychologist but this has all the hallmarks of a rapid breakdown.

Im sceptical that he has an offending history as as I mentioned previously his job role would require immense vetting of his private life and I find it difficult to believe in this day and age someone who did wouldn’t have digital red flags...

The newspaper comments about colleagues noticing erratic behaviour, the closeness of the 2 only known incidents being days apart. The fact that I don’t think he has tried to cover this up particularly which suggests he was aware he might get caught or it was spontaneous (If you want to commit an unsolved murder you don’t take them off a busy London street when you live in secluded rural Kent). He may well have made some half hearted attempts to cover it up but being a police officer Id imagine he knew they would be unsuccessful.

Then you have the elephant in the room of one known self harm attempt and the mysterious ambulance at the property.

JMO but it points to a short term massive escalation in behaviour that had perhaps been previously surpressed just as much as he has decades old connections to other cases. Where he either knew or wanted to be caught and perhaps was unconcerned as he wasn’t planning on staying around for a trial. unfortunately for the victim if so it was wrong place wrong time

Pretty sure I read somewhere that his father died in November which could have had a massive effect on him mentally if they were close

But despite ‘erratic behaviour’ he was still trusted with a gun

 

[Stella123]

A question also for legal people. If perpetrator is charged for this alleged crime - and Police then find other bodies/crimes - does that mean those will be overlooked? Or become new charges when a trial is already in progress?

 

[ramsgate]

Why do WC's crimes appear to have escalated so very suddenly and seriously? Why, as an experienced police officer, does he appear to have made such a clumsy and half-baked effort to evade detection?

I'm not sure if WC knew he'd been reported for the McDonald's drive-thru flashing incident, but it seems probable given what we know (two police were called to McDonald's, and there's an inquiry going on that suggests they knew WC was responsible from the off). But either way, from that day on he would have known his number was up: it would only have been a matter of time before his police career was brought to an end in deeply shameful circumstances.

We know his life was already spiralling out of control (the long periods of unexplained personal leave, talk of 'erratic behaviour' etc). I agree that his build in recent photos looks very much that of a steroid user (right down to his round 'moon face'), with all the behavioural implications. This all starts to look like a very (VERY) dramatic runaway midlife crisis.

WC knew he was falling apart, and that he was about to be sacked and disgraced. Joining the police appears to have been the crowning and proudest achievement of his life. There is no way of making this sound hurtfully trite, but I think he just considered the situation and felt he had nothing to lose in fulfilling his very darkest fantasy. His own life was effectively over anyway. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

RIP Sarah.

 

[Stella123]

DBM

 

[Commoner]

So this website seems to contradict what both you and @Commoner have said here:

You are right that the law did state that suspects that had been charged could no longer be questioned, but this has now been a change in the law that enables the police to question a suspect after they have been charged. This is to allow the police to continue their detailed investigations even after the suspect’s trial has begun. It is not unheard of for a trial to be stopped because the police have uncovered new evidence. The police continue to investigate, as it is always a possibility they are prosecuting an innocent person.​

I've just read that link, and it's all about the police continuing their investigations

It says nothing about continuing to question a charged person.

These are separate things, and as (I think) I said before, investigations can continue, but post-charge questioning of the suspect does not

 

[Stella123]

Pretty sure I read somewhere that his father died in November which could have had a massive effect on him mentally if they were close

But despite ‘erratic behaviour’ he was still trusted with a gun

As mentioned earlier - a lot of people lost loved parents and didn't go out and kill. The comment about erratic behaviour in the press was I believe from a source, which may not have been a reliable source. Supposition. IMO

 

[Parmalade]

There is just something amiss here to me. I am pretty certain that WC committed the crime as I genuinely believe the police would not have 'thrown him to the lions' if they weren't sure he was involved. I could cite many cases where the police have closed ranks to protect their own (Ian Tomlinson for one). What doesn't sit right is that if this is WC's first kill, surely given all of his training, it wouldn't have been conducted in such a 'sloppy' way (abducting someone on a busy road which is covered in CCTV with many properties looking out on to the road).

However, if this is not his first murder, why has nothing been flagged sooner? We've seen reports now that he has had a lot of time off recently due to "erratic behaviour", so if there is an iota of doubt regarding the mental state of a person who is armed for their job of protecting high ranking officials, why was he not immediately stripped of this role and either suspended or relocated to a desk job?

Was his sloppy kill perhaps an attempt at double-bluffing, where if he were to be flagged as a POI he could point to the fact that if he were to commit an offence of this nature, it would be more 'professional'? I think that this scenario (not necessarily SE specifically but the intent to kill a woman at this time in this place in this way and a carefully thought-out aftermath of disposal, alibi etc) means either a very drawn-out and meticulous plan to kill someone, or a moment of rage, either brought on by some kind of sexual reason (thrill or misogyny) or potentially abuse of steroids (MOO based on his bulging muscles). Could the erratic behaviour previously mentioned also be a result of steroid abuse? I would assume not as presumably officers in WC's position would be subject to regular and detailed drug tests surely but correct me if I'm wrong in that assumption.

Another thing which confuses me in terms of the psychological escalation is the 'path' from IE to murder. JMO but there is a large leap from flashing to murder. Is a more logical path flashing-sexual assult-rape-murder? If so, I think this lends a lot of credence to the article previously posted regarding the rape on Clapham Common last July.

Apologies for the long musings and further apologies if I'm just paraphrasing or summarising what many others have already said. There are still many unanswered questions about the case, including how SE ended up in the car (was she tricked or forced or tricked then forced?) and the overall question as to why someone would do something like this at all.

Good post - thought provoking. To add to the thoughts about whether this is his first murder or not (and for the sake of this post, I’m assuming he is the culprit but I recognise he’s yet to be even charged let alone convicted of it): we have strong suspicions that he is responsible for IE in a McDs restaurant shortly before SE’s murder. I would hazard a guess that he didn’t expect to be able to kill any of the female staff he subjected to this offence.

Therefore, any criminal historians or serial killer psychoanalysts know if it’s possible/normal for a killer to ‘regress’ back to a ‘lesser’ crime like IE (to be clear, I mean not to demean the impact on IE victims, I mean lesser in terms of gratification for WC)?

 

[DFR3217]

I don’t usually like being an amateur psychologist but this has all the hallmarks of a rapid breakdown.

Im sceptical that he has an offending history as as I mentioned previously his job role would require immense vetting of his private life and I find it difficult to believe in this day and age someone who did wouldn’t have digital red flags...

The newspaper comments about colleagues noticing erratic behaviour, the closeness of the 2 only known incidents being days apart. The fact that I don’t think he has tried to cover this up particularly which suggests he was aware he might get caught or it was spontaneous (If you want to commit an unsolved murder you don’t take them off a busy London street when you live in secluded rural Kent). He may well have made some half hearted attempts to cover it up but being a police officer Id imagine he knew they would be unsuccessful.

Then you have the elephant in the room of one known self harm attempt and the mysterious ambulance at the property.

JMO but it points to a short term massive escalation in behaviour that had perhaps been previously supressed just as much as he has decades old connections to other cases. Where he either knew or wanted to be caught and perhaps was unconcerned as he wasn’t planning on staying around for a trial. unfortunately for the victim if so it was wrong place wrong time

Was just reading about how there has been a decline in serial killers since the 1980s, and one of the reasons suggested is that it's got a whole lot harder, what with cctv and everything, so maybe the desire to do it is suppressed for a long time, and then suddenly becomes impossible to control, and escalates rapidly. That is pure amateur psychologist theoretical speculation by me, obviously.