Wayne Couzens: Sarah Everard's killer pleads guilty to three counts of indecent exposure
Couzens, who is serving a whole-life order for raping and murdering Ms Everard, will be sentenced for the three further offences in March.
Monday 13 February 2023 20:17, UK
The former police officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard has pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent exposure.
Wayne Couzens appeared at the Old Bailey via video link to admit exposing his genitals in woodland in Deal, Kent, and twice in a fast food restaurant, also in Kent.
The incident in the woodland was on 13 November 2020, while the offences in the fast food restaurant were on 14 and 27 February 2021.
Couzens will be sentenced on 6 March. There were three other counts against him but prosecutors said it was not in the public interest to seek a trial for these.
He is already serving a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape, and murder of Ms Everard in March 2021.
Following the plea, the police officer who led the team which investigated the murder of Ms Everard said it was important Couzens faced justice for a string of indecent exposure offences.
Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, who leads the specialist crime command team, said: "It was hugely important for the team to listen to those who came forward, investigate their allegations thoroughly and make sure Couzens faced justice for this offending.
"It was our job to support them and hold him to account on their behalf, and we took this duty seriously.
"Today is about those who were subjected to his vile behaviour and who have helped bring him to justice."
The Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism Bas Javid said: "I hope this goes some small way to help the public understand that we will be ruthless in holding officers - even one serving a whole-life order and who will never know freedom again - to account."
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Couzens stopped the 33-year-old marketing executive as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of 3 March.
He had used his Metropolitan Police warrant card and handcuffs to abduct her, under the pretence that she had broken COVID-19 lockdown rules.
Her burned body was later found in a pond in a Kent woodland.