A disciplinary hearing is held over alleged missed opportunities to catch Wayne Couzens | 5 News

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A disciplinary hearing is held over alleged missed opportunities to catch Wayne Couzens | 5 News



Welcome back to Five News. A former Metropolitan Police officer allegedly missed an opportunity to properly investigate Wayne Cousins over two incidents of indecent exposure. Samantha Lee is said to have failed to make the correct investigative enquiries just hours before Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered. Well, our correspondent, Julian Drucker, has been at the police misconduct hearing. And Julian, what have you heard today then? Hi, Danny. This is more fallout from the case of Wayne Cousins, one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Metropolitan Police. He was obviously found guilty of murdering Sarah Everard, but could more have been done to stop that from happening? Well, earlier this year, he admitted three counts of indecent exposure.

Now, two of those incidents happened at a McDonald's drive-thru swan Lee in Kent. Samantha Lee, a former net police officer, is accused of not correctly investigating what happened. Now, she was sent to the restaurant after that second incident, and this was just hours, as it turned out, just before the murder of Sarah Everard. In the hearing today, we heard how she was at the end of her shift. The lawyer representing the Met said that she rushed the job. The manager of the McDonald's says he showed her CCTV of Wayne Cousins in his car. Ms Lee is claiming that he didn't, and the row over this CCTV is at the centre of this disciplinary hearing.

And Julian, it's claimed that this officer later lied about what happened on that day. Yeah, the lawyer representing the Met Police said that Ms Lee lied about her actions when questioned, and we heard that she believed that the CCTV was automatically deleted. So Paul Ozin, KC, told the hearing. She was more intent in getting away quickly than in performing her duties properly. It is supportive of the unpalatable conclusion that PC Lee just did not bother to get the CCTV, even though she knew it was important. Instead relying on others to do that instead of her, and that she later lied to others when she knew that the stakes had escalated astronomically. She is accused of breaching the forces standards on duties and responsibilities, as well as honesty and integrity.

She denies all the allegations, but if she's found guilty of gross misconduct, she could be banned from ever serving as a police officer ever again. This hearing is expected to conclude around this time next week. Okay, Julian Ducca, thank you. you.



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