Sarah Everard: the murder that broke trust in the police

August 24
51 mins

Episode Description

In March 2021, Sarah Everard walked home from a friend's flat in Clapham. She never arrived. Her face went up on lampposts across south London, her name spread across the country, and within a week police had arrested a suspect: a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

Neil reveals how he felt in the moment that he learned the suspect was an officer serving under his command. Andy was living locally and watched a local missing person appeal become a national story. Drawing on conversations with detectives who worked the case, they explain how investigators identified Wayne Couzens, and what it was like for officers to build a murder case against one of their own.

Together they discuss what it says about police culture that a man nicknamed 'the rapist' by his colleagues had been allowed to stay in uniform, and whether this was the biggest crisis the Met's leadership has ever faced. They examine the Clapham Common vigil and whether the force's handling of it was defensible, why Dame Cressida Dick lost her job, and whether women and girls will ever feel like they can trust the police again.

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