Kirsty Allsop, Did you really say this? What were you thinking.

[VitalsStable]

Saying it was because of lockdown that WC could abduct, rape and murder Sarah. He would have done it regardless of lockdown.

Lockdown certainly didn't make him do it!!

However it certainly made it easier for him.

He would have done it if lockdown or not UNLESS SOMEONE IN POWER HAD PAID ATTENTION TO HIS BEHAVIOUR AND WHATSAPP MESSAGES.

That is the real failing here. Not bloody lockdown.

To be clear this psychopath was always going to kill. However covid was a gift from the Gods for him. It gave him extra powers which we all know aided him. I understand Kirstie’s point. On another note I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he hasn’t killed before. Sarah was a nice girl from a good family and attracted the attention of the media. How many women from not so ‘nice’ backgrounds as he abused. Horrible sick pig. I hope they get him in prison.

Hmmm, tricky one. I think lockdown probably made it easier for him, but I don't like the idea that KA is using this horror to further her own agenda.

@GreyhoundG1rl

It didn't make him do it, but it aided him considerably. That's the simple truth.

Yes-that & having a warrant card & other behaviour such as making female colleagues uncomfortable, exposing himself & these things being either brushed off or seemingly condoned.

@Libraryghost

To be clear this psychopath was always going to kill. However covid was a gift from the Gods for him. It gave him extra powers which we all know aided him. I understand Kirstie’s point. On another note I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he hasn’t killed before. Sarah was a nice girl from a good family and attracted the attention of the media. How many women from not so ‘nice’ backgrounds as he abused. Horrible sick pig. I hope they get him in prison.

I give it 2 months before he winds up in hospital. I'm pretty sure other prisoners will not take kindly to a rapist, murdering, bent police officer...

@diddl good point.Just being a policeman gave him extraordinary powers. Covid was just an added extra.

@JinglingHellsBells

He could have just as easily pulled over a woman driver for something (like a faulty light or speeding- all untrue of course) and asked her to get in his car while he 'questioned her'.

He could but he wouldn't have handcuffed her and she would have objected if he'd tried. Although Couzens would have attempted the same without lockdown rules, those rules did make it easier for him. I think what Katie Allsopp said should have read... "...it was because of lockdown that WC could abduct, rape and murder Sarah in the manner that he did." But maybe she did say that because I haven't read her quote.

We don’t know what was said in their conversation. She may well have challenged him but didn’t scream and make a fuss. He had her handcuffed and could well have told her he would radio from his car etc

He actually bought a piece of land to commit his murder/s on so was going to do this regardless.

Lockdown laws probably made it easier to come up with a plausible excuse to stop her in the street but the only thing that might have prevented this from happening would have the police suspending him from duty while his indecent exposure was investigated and the hopefully the sack. It was a massive shambles by the Met.

I read that he was already a sex pest, way before lockdown. He was also very adept at lying to the investigators when he was filmed at home, he denied having seen, or know of Sarah, when shown photo's of her. I am sure someone must have noticed his weird persona, whilst working for the police over the years.

Prisons are full of rapists and murderers. I don't think we should comfort ourselves thinking he will get brutal justice meted out to him. He'll be a hero to somebody.

@MaenadsJustWannaHaveFun oh I wouldn’t bet on that. They really don’t like the police in jail. That’s what will offend some inmates, his police status not the raping and murdering.

Kirsty Allsop. She jumps on any current news and uses it for attention. It’s in very bad taste. She’s a vile woman who lies and centres herself as much as she can. Why the fuck does anyone care what she thinks? Has she stopped for one minutes to think how Sarah’s family are feeling whilst she’s tweeting away and causing controversy, no she hasn’t. It’s what she does.

well she has a point , it certainly aided him in that he had a good excuse to stop and arrest her and sadly she complied , i expect he would have done it eventually , but it would have been harder , he had the perfect excuse and he took his chance with terrible consequences for her and her family

She - Allsopp - has a point. There were lots of side effects of lockdown that had negative effects. For some people they were more negative than Covid but no-one seemed to care about that.

All the high profile occasions where they over stepped the mark (calling it a banned picnic when women were walking with coffee for example) were against women. Large groups of young men weren't stopped and fined, they picked easy targets.

This, in absolute spades. Football supporters - by nature, mostly men - were allowed to have large gatherings but heaven forfend women would get together to mourn a murdered and raped woman. No, that was time to send in the heavies.

this is like saying the existence of rental car agencies helped him to commit the crime.

She might have a point if this was a one off from him, that the additional powers meant that someone ordinarily law abiding (and white) would be less likely to question being stopped. However I would be very very surprised if this was his first crime against a woman. He was calm and collected throughout, he talked and murdered her then disposed of her body and several days later took his partner and child to the woods. In my professional experience it is incredibly rare that this would be a first offence. I'm hoping more victims will have the courage to speak up, and further investigation will be done into unsolved crimes where he could potentially be a suspect. If this is one of many or even several her point is invalid. Did he opportunistically user Covid as a reason to stop her, yes. Would he have found some other reason and has at other times, almost certainly.

I certainly wasn't a lockdown fan like some, but I do think this is stretching things somewhat.

He shouldn't have even been in the police in the first place, that is the problem.

Can I point out the obvious too - I haven’t seen evidence but I assume he was wearing a face mask? That makes it really difficult to read body/facial language and to know if someone ‘looks shifty’.

SE wasn't doing anything wrong that he was able to see just from her being on the street walking. We weren't under a curfew, even though we were in lockdown.

So WC was inventing a 'crime' that didn't, as far as he knew at that moment, exist.

He could have stopped any woman for anything.

He couldn’t have arrested any woman for anything.

People weren’t supposed to be out for anything other than essentials at that time - SE had been to a friends house hadn’t she?

It wasn’t worthy of genuine arrest but as a usually law abiding citizen, it’s not hard to see how you could become intimidated into thinking it was worthy of arrest at that time

Very few opportunities to do something similar in ‘normal’ times

I agree that lockdown laws and mania made it easier for him, although he would have committed this horrific act anyway.

I was angry to see those women who met by police on a walk, and that women couldn't attend vigils without police manhandling, while sporting events went ahead.

Women were singled out, yet when we opposed or complained, we were told to behave.

He would have done it one way or another. Covid powers just gave him an opportunity sooner rather than later - and that's if he hasn't already done something like this before.

@JinglingHellsBells

He could have just as easily pulled over a woman driver for something (like a faulty light or speeding- all untrue of course) and asked her to get in his car while he 'questioned her'.

Much harder as he’d have needed to be alone in a police vehicle to do that

He used covid as a reason to arrest her but as you say ‘I’m sure if it wasn’t for covid he would have still found a way’, he’s a police officer, he had authority and power and he used that to his advantage 😢.

Of course lockdown helped him. If a plainclothes police officer with unmarked car tried to arrest you when you weren’t doing anything wrong I think most of us would question it. Much, much easier to find someone on their own who is doing something you could feasibly arrest them for. And in normal times most people out and about don’t fall into that category. Maybe you’d find a lone woman smoking a joint or something if you spent long enough looking.

During lockdown that was absolutely not the case - and fines for ludicrous infractions were big news at the time. So it was the perfect opportunity to go out, find someone who could plausibly be detained and persuade them of that fact.

The fact he had been on Covid patrols and knew what to say was widely reported.

There are more serious failings, but the circumstances of the lockdown and how it was policed provided an opportunity.

And she’s deleted the tweet because she realises she’s gone too far this time. But it’s served it’s purpose as attention has been given to her. Sick woman.