Sarah Everard’s family send surprising message to Met Police

Barney Davis @BarneyDavisES30 September 2021

The family of Sarah Everard have said they are “immensely grateful” to the Metropolitan Police officers who worked on their daughter’s case.

Serving police officer Wayne Couzens was handed a whole life sentence for the kidnap, murder and rape of Ms Everard on Thursday.

In statement released after sentencing the marketing executive’s family thanked the officers who worked with them for their “painstaking work” and “constant support”.

Couzens, 48, posed as undercover police officer on a Covid patrol when he intercepted Ms Everard on her way home from a friend’s home in Clapham in March.

Once she was handcuffed in the back of his car, Couzens drove the 33-year-old to remote locations in Kent, where she was raped and murdered. He then burned her body and dumped her remains in a woodland pond.

In an emotional statement after Couzens was sentenced to die behind bars, the Everard family said they were “very pleased” with the decision.

They said: “Nothing can make things better, nothing can bring Sarah back, but knowing he will be imprisoned forever brings some relief.

Sarah Everard’s father, Jeremy (left), leaves the Old Bailey with other family members
PA Wire

“Sarah lost her life needlessly and cruelly and all the years of life she had yet to enjoy were stolen from her.

“Wayne Couzens held a position of trust as a police officer and we are outraged and sickened that he abused this trust in order to lure Sarah to her death. The world is a safer place with him imprisoned.”

Thanking police officers involved they said: “We are immensely grateful to the police and legal team who worked on Sarah’s case. We cannot thank them enough for their meticulous and painstaking work and for their constant support.”

Sarah Everard (Family/PA)
PA Media

Paying tribute to Sarah, they added: “We miss her all the time. She was a beautiful young woman in looks and character and our lives are the poorer without her.

“We remember all the lovely things about Sarah - her compassion and kindness, her intelligence, her strong social conscience. But we especially like to remember her laughing and dancing and enjoying life. We hold her safe in our hearts.”

Lord Justice Fulford said Ms Everard’s life, and the pain of her family and friends, must not be forgotten.

“Sarah Everard was a wholly blameless victim of a grotesquely executed series of offences that culminated in her death and the disposable of her body”, he said.

“She was simply walking home in the mid-evening, having visited a friend during the Covid pandemic.

She was an intelligent, resourceful, talented, and much-loved young woman, still in the early years of her life. I have not the slightest doubt the defendant used his position as a police officer to coerce her in a wholly false pretext into the car he had hired for this very purpose.”

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