Wayne Couznes sentenced to 19 months for indecent exposure | 5 News

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Wayne Couznes sentenced to 19 months for indecent exposure | 5 News



Hello, it's two years almost to the day that Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by an off-duty police officer. It was a case that rocked the nation. Her death caused a huge public outcry about women's safety and highlighted the issue of trust in the police. Well, today her killer was back in court, this time sentenced to 19 months for three counts of indecent exposure. Extra jail time makes no difference to his whole life sentence. He will never be released. But in devastating impact statements, his victims told the court that Wayne Cousins could and should have been stopped before he went on to kill Sarah Everard.

Our Chief Correspondent, Tessa Chapman, has the story. He will never see freedom again, but today Wayne Cousins did face justice once more, this time for a string of indecent exposures before he killed Sarah Everard. Sentenced to 19 months, the hearing was televised in the Old Bailey and the court heard the three victims told police that Cousins wasn't stopped. The fact that no police came to find him or his black car to question him about these incidents can only have served to confirm and strengthen in the defendant's mind a dangerous belief in his invincibility. Wayne Cousins was on duty, supposed to be working from home in November 2020 when he exposed himself to a cyclist on this isolated lane in Kent. He was standing completely naked on a bank. Then in February 2021, at this McDonald's drive-through, he exposed his genitals on two occasions to female workers as they served him.

On February 28th, staff reported him to police, giving them both his number plate and his credit card details. But Wayne Cousins wasn't spoken to. Days later, he kidnapped Sarah Everard. One of the victims broke down in court as she described the impact the incident has had on her life, the distress of finding out that Wayne Cousins went on to kill Sarah Everard, the feeling of survivor's guilt. The two other victims had statements read out on their behalf and described the loss of freedom and security, their lack of trust now in police. Wayne Cousins was pictured on video link. His head was bowed throughout.

In a statement, the head of standards for the Met Police said, I wish he had been arrested for these offences before he went on to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard, and I'm sorry that he wasn't. And could he have been stopped if police had viewed this CCTV earlier and identified him? Experts warn indecent exposure needs to be taken more seriously. Arrest rates for indecent exposure are low, and prosecution rates in the courts for indecent exposure are especially low. So it's really important that we encourage victims to report their experiences to the police and then for the police and CPS to be working as they already are to increase those rates. Wayne Cousins' victims have been heard today, but there are still more questions to answer about how he wasn't stopped earlier. Well, as you can see, Tessa joins us now in the studio. What else is being investigated, then, Tessa? Well, there are a number of ongoing inquiries.

There is a former Met Police officer who is undergoing a gross misconduct hearing over those February reports that weren't taken on. There's a Kent police sergeant that's undergoing a gross misconduct hearing over an earlier alleged allegation that wasn't actually heard about in court today, but that happened back in 2015. And there's a broader home office inquiry as well, looking into Wayne Cousins' behaviour, both in and out of his job and whether there were opportunities to stop him. Now, what today hasn't done is change Wayne Cousins' fate. He will still die behind bars. We know that, but perhaps what it will do is change the conversation a little bit, encourage police forces to look into their culture and look into this pattern of behaviour, because we know that in this situation, it ended in total tragedy. Tessa, thank you for the moment.

Still clearly a lot to be done. Yeah. Thank you.



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