SARAH EVERARD - the search for Justice - Tue 5/3 - bbc 1 9pm

[Blondeshavemorefun]

this case always touches my heart as she was found quite local to me and I remember the searches 🥲

glad her family have the knowledge to help closure if that’s ever possible

The murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police Officer who abducted her as she walked home in March 2021 was a watershed moment for the nation.

It brought to the fore devastating issues within our police forces and highlighted the extent of violence against women and girls in our society - an issue recently declared a national priority alongside terrorism and organised crime.

This new documentary for BBC One and iPlayer looks at the Met’s investigation into Sarah’s murder, how this devastating crime unfolded and its impact.

Told by those closely involved in the case from the outset, many of whom are speaking on camera for the first time, including the Senior Investigating Officer, the Prosecuting Barrister and Sarah’s local MP.

Since Sarah’s murder, the narrative of ‘one bad apple’ has been destroyed. The force was placed in special measures and a major review of the Met Police found a culture of denial, widespread bullying, discrimination, institutional homophobia, misogyny and racism.

The repercussions continue to be far reaching, with police forces up and down the country forced to confront the culture and behaviour in their own ranks.

An Independent Inquiry launched by the Home Office is underway, to examine how this tragedy could happen, and, in the words of the then Home Secretary, the “unimaginable failures in policing” Sarah’s murder has exposed. Since Sarah's case, hundreds of police officers continue to face sexual assault allegations, including one of the UK's most prolific sex offenders, offending over a twenty-year career in the Metropolitan Police.

The film is being made by BBC Studios Documentary Unit. During the making of this film, the production team has been in close contact with Sarah’s parents. They hope that it will bring increased focus to issues of women’s safety, and abuse of power by police and other in positions of authority.

Emma Loach, BBC Lead Commissioning Editor, Documentaries, says: “The murder of Sarah Everard sent shock waves across the country and ignited an urgent conversation about police failings and violence against women and girls. This is an important and timely film and we, like Sarah’s family, hope it will contribute to the ongoing dialogue around the issues raised.”
Sarah Everard: The Search For Justice is a 1x60’ for BBC One and iPlayer, made by BBC Studios Documentary Unit.

It was commissioned by Clare Sillery, Head of Commissioning, Documentaries. The Executive Producers are Emily Lawson and Kirsty Cunningham, the Director is Lottie Gammon, the Producers are Clio Symington, Celia Jennison and Florence Barrow. The Archive Producer is Peter Scott. The Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Emma Loach.

FS
Note to editors
Sarah Everard’s family politely request no contact or interview requests are made.
We will not be featuring pictures of Wayne Couzens next to Sarah in the film, and in line with the family's wishes, we would ask that the press respects the same.

I thought the same, it shouldn't have really come as a huge surprise.. The Met have a terrible reputation and for good reason.
Wayne Couzens showed all the signs but it's no surprise to me that they didn't bother investigating him.

The difficult thing about her killer for some policemen that it reflects on their attitudes so clearly that they cannot say they would act differently even now. He could have been stopped or prevented from this high profile career in the police at many points. No one cared enough because he played the culture so well. He is a stain on their whole organization.

I do this too! London is eery but beautiful at night but I generally feel very safe in London. Safer than I did in the rural area I grew up. And all the harassment I have experienced has happened in broad daylight in front of many people who didn't/wouldn't intervene so being amongst others isn't guarantee of safety sadly.

I’m in Brixton, not as close as you are but I also remember the whole thing. I actually remember seeing a missing poster which was posted in Clapham Common (or Clapham North) I can’t quite remember.

This is one of those cases that I think about every month or so. It’s just horrific. Truly horrific and scary. I can’t imagine what Sarah was thinking and when she noticed something must be wrong. I’ll be watching the documentary. I just hope her family and friends are well supported as possible

@bombastix You are right. They still don't really see their misogyny as anything more than 'banter'. Certainly not part of the root cause.

It showed again in their determination to prosecute the women at the vigil. Even after a year, and the courts having thrown the case out, the Met appealed and tried to continue the prosecution. Such arrogance.

They still, even today, don't accept that they were just plain WRONG. That it was caused by one of them. By their tolerance of his abhorrent values. By their abuse of power.

I think it will take at least a generation to put this right. I don't think any woman of working age when Sarah was murdered will forget what the Met did.

Sarah was the same age as me. I remember my SIL sharing a picture of her when she was reported missing as she knew a friend of hers. We attended a wedding at the church where she is buried. Many a time I've walked to and from friends at night.

Having seen the bus CCTV tonight, I've been wondering if I would have got in the car. And I think I probably would have done. I would have trusted his warrant card, been worried about breaking covid rules and got in. How utterly heartbreaking it is to think of Sarah on that long journey coming to the realisation that something awful was happening. And then to hear there were 17 offences he was linked to, and 3 police forces that could have stopped him and I now feel anger, utter rage.

I haven’t watched the documentary yet and will be watching it tomorrow but for those that have watched it already, I have a quick question.

Do they mention how this evil monster was able to stop Sarah and make her believe that she was under arrest? I know it was supposedly for breaking Covid rules but did Couzens ever admit what he actually said to Sarah? I don’t quite remember much about Covid but were officers genuinely arresting people for breaking certain rules?

The Angiolini report was sobering. It was not a couple of cases of indecent exposure that were missed but a whole catalogue of predatory sexual offences dating back over 20 years

Sexual offences
ES.13 Since the then Home Secretary commissioned this Inquiry, it has become clear that Couzens’ terrible crimes were not committed in isolation but were the culmination of a trajectory of sexually motivated behaviour and offending. Couzens’ convictions for indecently exposing his genitals intending that someone would see them and be caused alarm and distress are now well known, after he pleaded guilty to three separate offences.

ES.14 Further, in the course of its own investigations, the Inquiry received evidence from a number of credible sources demonstrating that Couzens’ history of sexual offending was not restricted to indecently exposing himself. The Inquiry was also provided with evidence relating to alleged sexual abuse perpetrated by Couzens in his early twenties, which included an alleged very serious sexual assault of a child barely into her teens. Other alleged offending and activity, which was predominantly aimed at adult women, included sharing unsolicited photographs of his penis and sexual touching. There were also allegations of possession of indecent images of children. In order to protect the victims, who have shown great courage in coming forward, this Report excludes any details that could result in their identification.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65e05420cf7eb1b0e5f57eff/E02740018_Angiolini_Inquiry_HC_530_Accessible.pdf

Well watching their behaviour at the vigil should tell you all you need to know In fact IN the documentary you can hear them mention the Covid rules at the vigil Its even subtitled so there cant be any "misunderstanding" Hope that helps 😊

FYI there are plenty of videos in existence online of police arresting and issuing out fines for Covid breaches.

No need to be snarky. As you can see, I said that I hadn’t watched it yet

The vigil was all over the news at the time. It would have been pretty hard to miss

I watched it and it makes me sick that Wayne couzens and others got away with so much with so many warning signs. And the disgusting whatsapp messages thry were sending. (I include the despicable behaviour of the police involved at Bibi and Nicole smallmans murder in that)

It was a hard watch for many reasons - I have a teen DD about to go uni this year and I won't know how she is getting home from places and that scares the heck out of me.

and that I used to live in the same area as Sarah, and walk and run those streets regularly- sticking to main roads, well lit etc believing that to be safe. It's chilling. (Although I still do run alone at night albeit in a different area)

And the fucking victim blaming at the end - telling women watching to do in such situations! It beggars belief that its still expected that women should act/speak/dress/behave differently to somehow stop themselves being raped and murdered!

Are you okay? I’ve asked a question and if you don’t want to answer it, then no problem. This happened nearly 3 years ago. In that time, I’ve had two children.

I’m sorry that I can’t quite remember some of the Covid rules. I didn’t know one person that got arrested for breaking any of the rules so I simply asked a question. I briefly remember the virgil but that had nothing to do with my question. All I asked, was if the documentary mentioned how Couzens was able to use Covid rules to his twisted advantage in order to arrest Sarah. If so, what rules were they? It’s a straightforward question and no one’s forcing you to answer it. Hope that helps😊

This - him tricking her - was important in getting a whole life order. The police believed he tricked her - CCTV shows him perhaps(?) holding up his warrant card. A witness saw him handcuffing her. The evidence convinced the sentencing judge and he got the whole life order.

Unless I missed it he didn't admit tricking her.

I didn't interpret it like that. I actually see the "She did everything right" comment as a reason why nobody should be victim blaming anyone. Because we are told to do all these things to protect ourselves but in the end it didn't make a difference for Sarah.

I don’t think he’s ever actually disclosed the details about how he stopped Sarah & got her in the car. But based on CCTV the assumption is that he used his warrant card to get her in the car & a witness saw him handcuffing her.

@Doglegs @Summerrabbit thank you both. I wondered if he ever admitted it but it seems that the CCTV and witness evidence was enough to prove that he arrested Sarah under false pretences. Just awful

Just watched it.

It made me so, so angry.

It included Jess Phillips reading out the names of all of the women killed by men that year. A couple of days ago she read this year's list..

Nothing ever changes, does it?

It is so very dark. Sex offenders are the most manipulative of criminal offenders and the most driven. There is a lot of what is perceived to be low level sexual offending but ultimately the punishments for it need to reflect the reality of this. They work on people, everyone, to get them to accept them. Her killer did this over decades when objectively the chances of his conduct should have been looked at. He was actually completely safe.

At the end stating the statistics of violence against women and girls is sobering. And the fact that in society harassment is rife.
My teenage daughter has already been subject to sexual and misogynistic comments while walking to and from school. It would be from teenage boys and men in their cars - most disturbingly it happened the most when she was 14/15 and looked obviously younger, where as now she looks older and it doesn’t happen at all.
I was livid and I wanted to hunt them down. It’s basically sexual harassment.
I really do think there needs to be an education programme in schools to teach boys about respect to women.

The authority element absolutely attracts a certain type of offender to the police, just as authority over children attracts a different certain type of offender to teaching.

These men literally choose their careers to gain access to their preferred victims. Some will even claim to become women after arrest in the hope of continuing to have access to female victims whilst in prison.

were officers genuinely arresting people for breaking certain rules?

1. It doesn't actually matter whether officers were genuinely arresting people for covid rule breaches. Couzins was able to convince her that they were, and that's what matters. The rules changing every five minutes will have made that a lot easier for him.
2. If a copper is arresting you, it's deemed extremely unwise to resist arrest, even if you think that the arrest is wrongful. You go quietly, you say nothing without a solicitor present, and you sign nothing without a solicitor's advice. If the arrest is wrongful, that's for the solicitor to deal with. Resisting arrest is a criminal offence in its own right, which is one of the reasons Cressida Dick was forced out of her job: she was not only victim-blaming but instructing women to break the law.

I really do think there needs to be an education programme in schools to teach boys about respect to women.

That's likely to work as well as "Just Say No" did for drugs. A much more effective measure, with immediate results, would be to suspend hiring of male police officers until a minimum of 50% of coppers are female and to outlaw male officers from arresting anyone without a female officer present. Men clearly can't as a group be trusted to do policing without women keeping tabs on them.

Where did I say anything about resisting arrest? If a police officer is attempting to arrest you, you’re most likely going to follow their instructions.

I was interested in whether people had actually got arrested for breaking Covid rules for my own knowledge. Clearly that’s a question that I should have asked Google and not this thread

This is what horrified me. Even after all this 'lessons will be learned' bollocks, they didn't sanction the police officer who didn't follow up on the indecent exposure charge. Apparently there were EIGHT similar incidents involving Couzens.

Cressida Dick was an appalling leader of the Met. She never owned up to the issues in the organisation and never took responsibility for her own shortcomings. The one bad apple approach was disgusting when the Met knew there were a large number of these cases, as her successor has admitted.

These people were allowed to act the way they did because of a culture of looking the other way, covering things up and lack of accountability.

Someone was telling me about a recent documentary about a male police officer who had had sex with a woman who was so drunk that she couldn't reasonably consent when he was on duty (she said she'd been raped but somehow he got off that by saying she'd wedged him against the wheel and he couldn't stop her!
He was allowed to keep his pension and retire without disciplinary sanctions. This is the kind of culture that leadership teams in the police think are acceptable.

The positive news was that the police officers in the programme, apart from Dick seemed a very different type of person and worthy of respect and very respectful about Sarah and her family.