A serving Metropolitan Police officer has suddenly entered pleas of guilty to kidnapping and raping Sarah Everard and has "accepted responsibility" for her death.
On Tuesday, 8 June, PC Wayne Couzens, 48, pleaded guilty to rape and kidnap. He is due to go on trial in October for her murder.
His lawyer, Jim Sturman QC, told the Old Bailey: "Responsibility for the killing is also admitted."
Met Police officer Wayne Couzens has admitted killing Sarah Everard.
— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) June 8, 2021
Today, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping the marketing executive.
He has not yet entered a plea to murder, but accepts responsibility for the killing.
Couzens, who appeared via videolink from Belmarsh prison, has not entered a plea to murder and is being medically assessed.
Miss Everard vanished as she walked home from a friend's flat in Clapham, south London, on 3 March.
Her body was later found in woods near Deal, Kent.
Couzens worked in the police's Diplomatic Protection Unit and carried a firearm during the course of his work.
BREAKING Wayne Couzens, Met diplomatic protection officer, has pleaded guilty to the rape and kidnap of Sarah Everard. Old Bailey told he accepts responsibility for her killing - he has not been arraigned pending medical reports
— Fiona Hamilton (@Fhamiltontimes) June 8, 2021
Last week the Metropolitan Police confirmed that a post-mortem examination gave Sarah Everard’s cause of death as “compression of the neck.”
Compression of the neck usually means either manual strangulation or with the use of a ligature.
Miss Everard’s death became a cause celebre for feminists demanding more protection for women.
There were calls for the resignation of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, after her officers were accused of brutality when they moved in to break up a vigil for Miss Everard on Clapham Common on the grounds that it was breaching coronavirus protocols.
