UK - Wayne Couzens (convicted killer of Sarah Everard)

[Sleuthresearcher]

We are British journalists looking into the life, career and crimes of London Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, who pled guilty to the killing of Sarah Everard in the UK in March 2021.

Our focus is on other crimes we believe that Wayne Couzens may have committed. We want to investigate if – aside from Sarah Everard– there are other women he has targeted, and if he may have committed crimes against women in the UK, and potentially abroad – prior to the murder of Sarah.

We are interested in hearing from anyone who may have information about him or his activities.

Please direct message us on Websleuths or comment on this thread if you have any information to share and we will continue to update this. We are grateful for any information or insights you can share, no matter how small it may be.

We are posting this with the permission of the Websleuths founders and moderators.

COUZENS TIMELINE
1984

Starts at Castlemount School in Dover (aged 11)

1990

Couzens started as an apprentice in 1990 working as a light-vehicle body repair technician

1995

Reported to be dating a 14-year-old girl

2002 – 2004

Private in the Territorial Army with C Company, 3rd Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment based in Canterbury

Involved in an “indecent” of a sexual nature – no further details, believe this was heard in court

2005 – 2009

Works as a special (volunteer) officer for Kent Police

2006

Marries Elena Sukhoreba (meeting over the internet in 2006)

2008

Becomes a traffic officer with Kent Police in Folkestone, Kent

2011
Couzens served at the Sellafield nuclear plant as an officer under the Civil Nuclear Constabulary for eight months

Continues in CNC and transfers to Dungeness nuclear power station in Kent as an armed diplomatic protection officer – nicknamed “the rapist” by colleagues

2015

He and his wife bought a three-bedroom house in Deal, Kent for £200,000

9th June – one report of indecent exposure in Dover, Kent (accused of driving with the lower half of his body undressed)

2017

Couzens’ and his family spent a holiday in Ukraine

2018

September leaves the CNC

Joined London’s Metropolitan Police force as a South Area, serving initially in a Safer Neighbourhood Team

Claimed that he was reported to bosses for slapping a female police officer's bottom at Bromley police station, but it appears no action was taken

2019

Joins a response team covering the Bromley area in February 2019

Visited Dubai with his family

Couzens bought a plot of woodland in Hoads Wood near Ashford.

2020

Couzens moved to the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command. His primary role was to patrol diplomatic premises, mainly embassies.

November - one count of indecent exposure in Deal, Kent

December 2nd - Joined Match.com using his middle name "Antony", giving a false date of birth, and claiming that he was separated, had no children and lived in Canterbury

2021

Indecent exposure between 22nd January and 1st February in Swanley

Indecent exposure between 30th January and 6th February in Swanley

Indecent exposure - 14th February in Swanley

Indecent exposure - 27th February in Swanley

(One linked to a McDonalds drive through in Swanley)

February 27th – Couzens was in contact with an escort with the username "escourtbabygirl" – date of this unclear

3rd March - the murder of Sarah Everard

9th July - Couzens pleads guilty to murder appearing via video link from Belmarsh high-security jail

 

[Sillybilly]

@Sleuthresearcher, Welcome to Websleuths and Thank You for joining the forum and starting this interesting thread.

We've moved the thread into this sub-forum where it will likely get more attention.

 

[noseybonk]

Potentially unhelpful/comes from googling, but there's an unsolved murder of a woman in Kent - Laura El-Hagrasi. There's missing women from London and the South East with few details available publicly, so a look is worth it - Aisling Chen, Georgina Gharsallah, Gillian Affleck, Rebecca Carr, Megan Albrighton, Joanne Sheen, Nellie Pelang Basta, Aminata Toure. Again, these are just missing women from around abouts his known areas of operation during the periods within which he was around them - in all likelihood they have nothing to do with him, but I figure if an 'every stone unturned' approach is to be taken, it's worth at least a quick look to see if there's any obvious details which exclude him from having harmed them.

This might sound silly, but it might be worth looking through Crimewatch appeals. Assuming you don't have access to police records, Crimewatch (and Crimewatch Roadshow, and Crimewatch Live) have featured many rapes and sexual assaults over the years. A lot of episodes are online and can be skimmed through for potentially relevant details (or the BBC Genome project and BBC Programmes site searched for key words). Apologies if this is an obvious one, but I know plenty of cases on Crimewatch have had little to no other publicity.

 

[Zoomy]

I did come across two Vietnamese teenagers missing, one from Deal and one from Dover - one in 2005, and the other within the last ten years. There's very little info about them, but Wayne Couzens sprung to mind.

Just found the article, there are other missing women in Kent mentioned here, that he could also be linked to.

The faces of the 23 people missing across Kent

Around 250,000 people go missing in the UK every single year

www.kentlive.news

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Good luck with your investigations. I don’t have anything to add, other than bringing some reinforcements to your thread..

@Skigh @CoverMeCagney @Atoz @Legally Bland @Spy Versus Spy @Amonet @astheworldfallsdown @Alyce @RusselSprout

 

[MrsWatson]

I don't have any information to add, but I look forward to what's uncovered. I also think it's highly likely he's involved in other crimes. Would his DNA have been connected by now, if there was DNA evidence from the crime?

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

<modsnip - quoted post was removed>

I wonder if the police are doing anything whatsoever to seek out prior victims? There was talk of digging up his plot of land and searching the tunnels where he had worked as a mechanic for his father. Are they even looking into him and interviewing those who knew him in the past or is that it, he’s in prison. For a murder that indicates he was adept and experienced at what he did ??

 

[LemonMint]

It would be interesting to know more about the “indecent” of sexual nature in 2002-2004 as well as the appearance of the escort he contacted in 2021.

I’m sure you have already looked into this what comes to victimology: If he went for certain types (Sarah and his wife - especially when his wife was younger- looked alike) as sexual predators often (but not always) do it might help to narrow down other possible victims (unsolved sexual attacks, missing people etc.).

 

[Terryb808]

The woodland area he purchased, he must have had a reason for this and I’ve assumed (correct me if I’m wrong) that it’s the same woodland where SE was found.
It strikes me that WC went about the murder and attempted disposal in a completely inept way.
If he’s responsible for other disappearances (IMO) it’s unlikely they would be found in this woodland.
It can’t be an overly large area, and with the right approach shouldn’t be difficult to search.

 

[jackal67]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> I remember sleuths on here having cctv footage that looked like a girl struggling in a car. I believe they posted it on the SE thread and trying to trace the car make. If I remember correctly the footage they had accessed was suddenly unavailable.

 

[Pinkizzy]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> I remember sleuths on here having cctv footage that looked like a girl struggling in a car. I believe they posted it on the SE thread and trying to trace the car make. If I remember correctly the footage they had accessed was suddenly unavailable.

It was a link from London Traffic Cameras - Live TfL JamCam Feeds

 

[jackal67]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> I was thinking more of previous rape victims or indecent exposure cases. Ex girlfriends etc who may have come forward after he was caught?

 

[Terryb808]

But that proves my point that he isn't smart. It doesn't mean he's gotten away with it in the past and believed he would again. Possible of course, just imo unlikely to be the case. In addition to the fact he was an actual policeman and this is exactly the sort of thing the police investigate. There is CCTV everywhere nowadays so you'd have to be a fool not to consider that it would be somewhere along a busy main road.

Over confidence based on the fact he’s got away with previous (less serious) offences. However, murder pushes him over the line and I can’t believe any police force would attempt to brush this under the carpet.

Acting quickly to secure CCTV footage was clearly the key to solving the SE case.

IMO he either researched in detail what happens at a serious crime scene and prepared himself to eradicate any actual evidence. From the press coverage he did this very well and without the CCTV footage there would likely have not been enough evidence for a prosecution.

If this isn’t his first murder and he’s used the same MO regarding deposition, sadly they’re not going to be solved.

 

[LammyTheRobot]

I followed this case very, very closely, and gave technical advice to the Met and Sussex in support of their work. I work on software and computer systems that process huge datasets, and also produce some geographical insights to private sector and government.

Some geographical reference points I have in my notes, which may be useful to your research, are:

- The very small number of locations outside of London itself that the Met's PaDP unit protects, including Windsor Castle, Chevening House in Kent, the NATO Summit in Watford in 2019, and possibly Hanslope Park near Milton Keynes (though this is primarily protected by Thames Valley Police).

- The Met trains its armed officers at its premises in Gravesend, Kent, so presumably WC would have spent a fair amount of time there.

- The Civil Nuclear Constabulary's training centre is in Oxfordshire - Abingdon - and WC would presumably have spent quite a bit of time there (he was CNC from 2011-2018). From memory researching the CNC, I recall that it wasn't unusual for someone permanently appointed at one location to regularly spend time at other locations, so their other locations (particularly Sizewell) would be interesting. They also run rail-based long-distance heavily guarded journeys, and the odd sea-based guarded journey, which WC may or may not have been involved with, as well as acting as armed response to non-nuclear/police requests in local areas when needed.

- I think it's not a stretch to say WC's "range" covers most of the Kent/Sussex/Essex coasts, and also Oxfordshire, non-coastal Kent, non-coastal Sussex, and the Thames Valley areas around Windsor, Watford, and possibly Hanslope Park. This range would have been +/- active over the years, with obvious concentration at certain times (e.g. more Kent & Sussex coast earlier on, Oxfordshire for the CNC, then the southern commuter-town belt around London, then London itself).

- I'm pretty sure his time at the TA included Brighton barracks and that WC lived in Brighton for a time.

The motorways provide a great way of plotting this supposed range, and I'm attaching a graphic that was drawn up by a professional geo-profiler as part of my work, which several police forces have. The darker areas are the strongest areas of interest, based on number of connections over the years with those areas. So a dark spot would be somewhere WC had a long, repeat connection to, etc.

Honestly I'm quite surprised there haven't yet been any specific cases connected to him to emerge. I feel he probably was a serial killer, based on the "efficiency" with which he carried out the Everard attack, and the proximity of her murder to his home; I could of course be wrong but statistically I don't think so. It's unusual for a "commuting"-type serial offender to commute to find targets, and then return those targets close to home.

Good luck @Sleuthresearcher!

 

[Joshw2022]

Even if specific victims don't come forward, it would be interesting to know whether there was any increased offending in the specific areas where Couzens lived and worked, if his specific addresses are known. I.e., in the time that Couzens lived in a certain area was there an increase in reports of indecent exposure or voyeurism compared to the years previously. Maybe a FOI request to the relevant forces could demonstrate this.

<modsnip>

 

[dotr]

Speculation, fwiw, imo.
Not much that i can add to this thread from Canada, but some random comments and re- post of an interview with Couzens.

Guessing and hoping that C was less concerned with getting rid of any bodies he may have been responsible for killing in the past, but because of greater DNA awareness and advances, he likely became more ''vigilant'' about hiding and destroying Sarah's remains.

Wondering where C attended school as a teenager and if there were sex assaults and break and enters in the area at that time?
Assuming he started his criminal behavior closer to home, guessing classmates and neighbours received obscene phone calls from him considering that he imo, likes to shock/embarrass females by exposing himself.

 

[TheSun]

I am a new member with minimal experience, so please tell me/correct me if I'm wrong on any subject.

IMO, WC seems like an overconfident man getting away with a lot. Sure, he might be a police officer and might have done some research, but he was caught nonetheless. I feel that if there are any victims from previous crimes that he committed, they have to be either old or minor compared to the case of SE. I do not think he would do a crime as serious as this within a recent time frame. So it would be helpful (as a member mentioned in an earlier post) to get a better insight into his teenage life, and also why his previous allegations went potentially unnoticed. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[IspyWithMyBigEye]

The woodland area he purchased, he must have had a reason for this and I’ve assumed (correct me if I’m wrong) that it’s the same woodland where SE was found.
It strikes me that WC went about the murder and attempted disposal in a completely inept way.
If he’s responsible for other disappearances (IMO) it’s unlikely they would be found in this woodland.
It can’t be an overly large area, and with the right approach shouldn’t be difficult to search.

He bought the woodland area two years before killing Sarah, so I’d guess he bought it for the sole purpose of using it as a burial ground of his victims. Why else would he want to buy an area of woodland that is of no use to him? It’s possible he either took his victims there to rape them and then buried them elsewhere, or maybe did bury another body (or bodies) there or even near to there, so he could return for his kicks and souvenirs, as it were. So any missing women in those two years could be located there, probably burnt like he burned Sarah.

Of course, he may have murdered other women previously, too…

 

[rubyraconteur]

It might be small potatoes — but any idea where in Ukraine he visited in 2017? I'm assuming either Odessa or one of the other Black Sea resort towns as they're popular with foreign tourists, but I'm curious to know more specifically.

 

[Lindsay Lou Who]

It might be small potatoes — but any idea where in Ukraine he visited in 2017? I'm assuming either Odessa or one of the other Black Sea resort towns as they're popular with foreign tourists, but I'm curious to know more specifically.

I believe as his wife is Ukrainian, he would have been there visiting her extended family and/or friends. So not necessarily one of the usual tourist spots.