Chilling CCTV images show Wayne Couzens hiring a car and going into a shop ahead of kidnapping then murdering Sarah Everard.
The married father-of-two, 48 from Deal in Kent, abducted Miss Everard in a hire car while she was walking home in South London on the evening of March 3.
Couzens went on to rape and strangle the 33-year-old marketing executive. Afterwards he set fire to her body.
READ MORE: Chilling moment Wayne Couzens is confronted with photo of Sarah Everard by police
A week after she disappeared, Miss Everard’s remains were found in a woodland stream in Ashford, Kent, just metres from land owned by Couzens.
The court heard that Couzens had finished a 12-hour shift with the Metropolitan Police before he picked up the hire car which he used to kidnap Ms Everard under the guise of arresting her for breaking lockdown rules.
CCTV of Couzens at a petrol station where he bought a jerry can and fuel which he later used to set fire to Sarah’s body
(Image: PA)
During his five days’ leave, he told his work supervisor that he felt unable to carry firearms and felt stressed over a pay dispute, reports the Mirror.
Prosecutor Tom Little QC described her as the victim of “deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire”.
Mr Little told the court Couzens had worked on ‘Covid patrols’ in the weeks before the murder.
Detectives believe the off-duty cops used the pandemic as an excuse to ‘detain’ his victim as she walked along the street.
He spent weeks planning the crime and booked a hire car to use in the kidnap three days before abducting Sarah.
Couzens visited B&Q in Dover to buy bags to put Sarah’s body in after he killed her
(Image: PA)
Married dad-of-two Couzens spent hours driving around west and South London before targeting his victim.
Dash-cam footage showed Couzens’s rented white and black Vauxhall Crossland pulled up, with its hazard lights on, on the pavement next to his victim.
“A couple were travelling on the south circulate in their car to their home address in south-east London and witnessed the kidnap of Sarah Everard.
“The front seat passenger noticed what she described as a man and a woman standing on the pavement with the man behind the woman.
“The man was wearing dark clothing and she started to watch more closely because she saw a handcuff.
“The woman on the pavement already had her left arm behind her back.
Couzens at the checkout at B&Q
(Image: PA)
“She was in the process of “giving her other arm behind her back” as the man, who must have been the defendant, placed the handcuff on her right arm.
“She was compliant, with her head down and did not appear to be arguing. The defendant appeared to be confident.
“The immediate impression the passenger formed was that she was witnessing an undercover police officer arresting a woman, whom she assumed “must have done something wrong”.
The former Met Police officer then raped and strangled the marketing executive after driving her 80 miles to Kent.
He eventually burned her body and dumped it in a builder’s bag in a woodland stream near land he owned in Ashford, Kent.
Couzens leaving B&Q having bought the bags for Miss Everard’s body
In the days that followed Couzens was caught on CCTV buying two green rubble bags at a B&Q in Dover.
He went on to order tarpaulin and a bungee cargo net from Amazon on March 7, which were shipped with next day delivery.
Couzens was arrested at his marital home in Deal, Kent, six days after Sarah’s disappearance.
Police had tracked his rental car, which he booked under his own name three days before the murder.
The hearing continues.
Read More
Related Articles
Read More
Related Articles
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/wayne-couzens-pictured-hiring-car-21716607
