U.K. officer accused of citing COVID-19 to detain kidnapping, murder victim Sarah Everard
CTV
A prosecutor argued Wednesday that a serving London police officer handcuffed a woman on the pretext of breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules before he kidnapped and killed her.
Wayne Couzens, 48, appeared at London's Central Criminal Court charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who disappeared while walking home from visiting a friend in south London on March 3.
Couzens has pleaded guilty to the charges. He sat in court with his head bowed as members of Everard's family listened to prosecutor Tom Little open his case.
Little said Couzens wore his police belt with handcuffs and used his police warrant card when he detained Everard "by fraud." He also had booked a car rental, the prosecutor argued.
There was "no credible alternative explanation for his need to hire a car other than to use that car to kidnap and rape a lone woman," Little said.
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