This article contains references to abduction, rape, and murder.
On Tuesday 5 March, a documentary entitled ‘Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice’ will air on BBC One. After watching a preview screening, GLAMOUR’s Entertainment Director Emily Maddick shares the most important things she learned from the powerful documentary…
Last weekend marked three years since the abduction, rape and murder of 33-year-old South Londoner, Sarah Everard, at the hands of serving police officer, Wayne Couzens. Even three years on, it seems the nation is still reeling from this unprecedented crime that served as a watershed moment, blowing open public trust in the police force and highlighting the very real threat of gender-based violence towards girls and women in the UK.
Last Thursday, the first part of the The Home Office-commissioned inquiry into Sarah’s murder – undertaken by Dame Elish Angiolini – found there were repeated missed opportunities to stop Couzens within the police force. In fact, he had been reported to the police eight times before he attacked and murdered Sarah. Reports of Couzens’ indecent exposure in 2015, 2020 and 2021 were mishandled. Couzens was even found to repeatedly expose himself at a McDonalds in Kent in the few days before he murdered Sarah. Police culture was questioned as a whole in the report, which looked to sexist and misogynistic behaviour as a worrying catalyst for more violent crimes.
Now a BBC documentary, Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice, which has been two and a half years in the making, will air on BBC 1 and BBC iPlayer tomorrow (Tuesday 5 March) at 9pm. The film looks closely at the Met’s investigation into marketing executive Sarah’s murder, how the devastating crime unfolded and its long-lasting 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, Katherine Goodwin, the Prosecuting Barrister, Tom Little and Sarah’s local MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Ahead of tomorrow’s release, here are five main takeaways from the documentary…
1.) Women were at the heart of the investigation.
While the Met police force clearly has major problems, and the former Police Commissioner Cressida Dick resigned amid the scandal, there are brilliant women who work there – namely Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, the Senior Investigating Officer on Sarah’s case. Goodwin leads much of the documentary – and her care, calmness, leadership and forensic investigation throughout gives some hope that there are brilliant women in the Met. At one point, she reveals that she had to go and tell Sarah’s family about a horrific meme being circulated within the police force uncovered by a Sunday newspaper, about how to murder a single girl – on Mother’s Day. A horrendous and unenviable task, but as she points out, “they have already lived through the worst day of their life.”
There is also footage released of Couzens’ second interview at Wandsworth police station, once in custody, having admitted to kidnapping Sarah. He has a bandage on his head after having self-harmed and repeatedly says, “no comment” to the interrogating female police officer. Her line of questioning is not only powerful, but also brings home the reality of the only reason that Sarah trusted Couzens to get into his vehicle – believing she had broken lockdown rules. “Did you show your warrant card to her?” the female police officer asks. “Is that how she trusted you? Because obviously, you know, as a police officer, we’re all in a position of trust, people trust us, don’t they? People trust us to look after them. People trust us to help them. You know, protect and serve, that’s what they say isn’t it? That’s what we’re here to do. We all took that oath, you included, Wayne.”
2.) It was CCTV footage from a bus that eventually captured Couzens.
Minute details of the case, including the forensic search for Sarah, are revealed in the documentary. The film opens with the chillingly familiar beeping of a self-service checkout at Sainsbury’s in Clapham, as Sarah is seen on the store’s CCTV buying a bottle of wine to take to her friend’s house the night she disappeared. It is later revealed that doorbell footage along the route she walked home along was scoured for signs of Sarah and what might have happened to her.
Emily Maddick
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