British policeman admits to murdering a young woman after she was kidnapped in London
The kidnapping and murder of Sarah sparked a wave of anger and resentment in Britain.
A 48-year-old policeman pleaded guilty Friday to the kidnapping and rape of British woman Sarah Everard in early March, a crime that has shocked Britain and revived the debate over violence against women.
Wayne Cousins was represented by video from Belmarsh maximum security prison in London, where he has been languishing for months, during a hearing at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London.
He admitted his guilt whispering with a bowed head.
His defense attorney Jim Strowman noted that his client "has pleaded guilty and repented of what he did and, as we were told this morning, will bear the burden for the rest of his life."
The member of the police unit responsible for protecting diplomatic missions in London had pleaded guilty last month to the kidnapping and rape of the 33-year-old who went missing on March 3 as she walked home after visiting friends in Clapham, south of the British capital.
The crime raised a huge wave of influence in the country.
Thousands of women posted testimonies on social media expressing their feelings of insecurity, threats and harassment, and called on politicians to act to combat this scourge.
Speaking about police officer Wayne Cousins outside Old Bailey Court Friday, London Police Chief Cressida Dick said officers were "disgusted, angry and devastated by this man's crimes".
Sarah Everard was found dead seven days after her disappearance in a forest in Kent (southeast of England), a few meters from the land owned by Wayne Cousins.
A forensic report concluded that the death was caused by "pressure in the neck."
During Friday's hearing, Judge Adrian Fulford spoke of a "massive investigation that has led to results that are very important to understanding what happened."
He said that the details of the sentence against the policeman will be announced after a two-day hearing, starting from September 29.
CCTV footage allowed investigators to identify Wayne Cousins at his home in Dale, Kent, on March 9 and arrest him.
A camera inside a bus captured the moment the policeman kidnapped the young woman in Pelham, south London.
Attorney General Tom Little noted Friday that there was no prior knowledge between Wayne Cousins and Sarah Everard.
Investigators were able to trace the path of the car that Wayne Cousins was driving to Dell, and identified its driver thanks to the company he rented from, a few hours before the kidnapping.
In the days following the crime, the policeman said he suffered from fatigue and declared that he no longer wanted to carry a firearm, before declaring himself ill on 8 March.
During the hearing, Cousins told police he had delivered Sarah Everard alive to three eastern European men in a pickup truck in a roadside restroom in Kent.
But phone data allowed investigators to find the young woman's body in a large bag of rubble that had been dumped in a stream.
The body was identified through the victim's dental records.
Investigations revealed that on the day Cousins booked the rental car, he bought a roll of duct tape online.
Two days after Sarah Everard's disappearance, CCTV footage showed the policeman buying two large rubble bags.
In an earlier hearing, the attorney general had stressed there was a significant risk of the policeman repeating his crimes if he were released on bail, citing an alleged incident of showy behavior by Cousins on February 28, a few days before the murder.
The Independent Inquiry into Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating whether the London Police responded appropriately after this incident of sexual display was reported.
Police also came under fire for their crackdown in March during a ceremony honoring Sarah Everard, a gathering that was banned due to COVID-19 lockdown measures.
London police officers have been implicated in another case, the murder of two sisters in a park in Wembley (Northwest of the British capital) on June 6, 2020. Two police officers have been accused of grossly violating their duties after taking and sharing pictures of themselves at the scene of the double crime.
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