Police forces to overhaul how they deal with officers caught flashing after damning Wayne Couzens report

29 February 2024, 08:23

Wayne Couzens who raped and murdered Sarah Everard
Wayne Couzens who raped and murdered Sarah Everard. Picture: Alamy

By StephenRigley

Police forces are to dramatically change the way they deal with reports of indecent exposure in the wake of the damning inquiry into Wayne Couzens.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

The former Scotland Yard officer was reported to police several times for flashing but no action was ever taken and he went on to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard in March 2021.

Today, the long-awaited review by Dame Elish Angiolini will be published. It is expected to be highly critical of both Kent Constabulary and the Metropolitan Police for missing numerous opportunities to catch Couzens for indecent exposure.‌

Sarah Everard was raped and murdered by Wayne Couzens
Sarah Everard was raped and murdered by Wayne Couzens. Picture: Alamy

Read More: ‘We could have saved Sarah’: Predatory cop Wayne Couzens seen on CCTV at drive-thru as flashing victim slams Met

Read More: Met Commissioner calls for indecent exposure offence overhaul after Couzens victim criticises force's response

The Telegraph reports that police chiefs will vow to pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry when allegations of indecent exposure are reported.‌

Chiefs will say this is not only the right thing to do for the victim, but will also help prevent flashing offences escalating into serious sexual violence.

O‌fficial figures suggest fewer than six per cent of the annual 10,000 offences of indecent exposure result in a charge or summons.‌

Dame Elish Angiolini
Dame Elish Angiolini. Picture: Alamy

The Angiolini Inquiry report is also expected to highlight glaring problems in the police vetting system, which allowed Couzens to transfer from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) into the Met, despite his name being linked to a sexual offence in 2015.‌

Couzens was working for Scotland Yard’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit, but was off duty, when he used his police warrant card to abduct Ms Everard as she walked through Clapham, South London. He was off-duty at the time.

Before joining the Met, in June 2015 Kent Police investigated Couzens for flashing after a couple came forward after seeing a man exposing himself while driving through Dover.‌

Despite providing police with a description and a car registration number that was tracked to Couzens the case was closed after the witnesses declined to support the investigation.‌

In November 2020, Couzens exposed himself to a female cyclist in an isolated part of rural Kent, but again police failed to investigate the matter properly.‌

The victim reported the incident to Kent Police, providing a description of Couzens and a partial car registration, but the force said it was unable to progress the investigation without the full number plate.‌ The victim was subsequently diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

‌Just weeks before Couzens abducted and murdered Ms Everard he exposed on two separate occasions at a branch of McDonald's drive thru in Swanley, Kent.‌

The incidents were reported to Scotland Yard and officers were provided with details of Couzens’ car registration and bank details.‌

But the investigation was not treated as a priority and had not been properly progressed by March 3 2021, when he attacked and murdered Ms Everard.

It is understood Dame Elish’s report is also expected to demand an overhaul of the vetting system with previous reports warning that pimps, gangsters and predatory sex offenders had managed to slip through the net and join the police.‌

In 2022 a report by Dame Louise Casey warned that an “anything goes” culture had been allowed to develop in the Met with racists, misogynists and criminals allowed to stay in the force.

More Latest News

See more More Latest News

Speeding car approaching warning to slow down, on UK road

Shock figures reveal 'incredibly dangerous' speeding across UK - as one driver caught doing 122mph on 30mph road

Emergency services work near the scene of an explosion at a bar where a grenade was thrown, in Grenoble, on February 12, 2025.

At least 12 injured after man wielding assault rifle throws grenade into bar

Dorothy Chiles

Great-grandmother, 87, pictured for first time after deadly train station attack, as woman in her 20s arrested

President Donald Trump speaks on Wednesday night

Trump makes plans to meet Putin and end Ukraine war as he says 'the US wants its money back'

Exclusive
Katie Amess has spoken out about the need for an inquiry into her father's murder by an Islamist terrorist

Daughter of Sir David Amess, MP murdered by Islamist terrorist, ‘made to sign NDA’ on report into father’s death

Exclusive
Angela Rayner reveals she took advice from NHS trauma specialists ahead of Grenfell demolition meeting

Angela Rayner reveals she took advice from NHS trauma specialists ahead of Grenfell demolition meeting

Italian F1 Grand Prix - Previews

Nightclub bouncer behind £12m plot to reveal Formula One star Michael Schumacher's health secrets jailed

Josef Fritzl

Incest monster Josef Fritzl could walk free from prison next year - and expects 'cheering crowds' to greet him

Ofsted's Chief Inspector Sir Martyn Oliver supports an extension to term times

'Time to think about school holidays': Ofsted's Chief Inspector supports extending term times

Exclusive
Angela Rayner insisted that British support for Ukraine was 'unwavering'

Rayner insists UK support for Ukraine 'unwavering' despite Trump's plan for 'immediate' peace talks with Putin

Prince William, President of BAFTA, operates a film camera as he visits the London Screen Academy in London, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

William tries his hand at being a cameraman on visit to London film academy

President Donald J. Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during the G20 Japan Summit Friday, June 28, 2019, in Osaka, Japan.

Trump and Putin 'to meet in Saudi Arabia' and 'start negotiations immediately' to end war in Ukraine

Street scene in Peckham, London, with red bus

Bus driver, 76, found guilty of killing passenger who was run over while attempting to board vehicle

Norward Road, Lambeth, the proposed LTN.

Council staff given 'wellbeing day' after attending 'stormy' neighbourhood meeting

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, left, shakes hands with Britain's Defense Secretary John Healey prior to a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a NATO defense ministers meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Feb.

Ukraine's NATO membership plans 'unrealistic' says US - as defence secretary claims US troops won't be peacekeepers

Jaysley Beck, 19, was found dead at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire

Officer accused of pinning down and trying to kiss soldier, 19, had been 'waiting for moment for them to be alone'