Wayne Couzens may have been responsible for more crimes, including an indecent exposure just 72 hours before he kidnapped, raped, and murdered Sarah Everard.
The 48-year-old was linked to the incident at a McDonald’s in Swanley, Kent, but, although his car was reported to officers, he was not named as a suspect and the investigation remains incomplete.
The revelation came from Assistant Met Commissioner Nick Ephgrave, who was speaking after Couzens was given a whole life sentence for the murder of Ms Everard.
Mr Ephgrave said a vehicle associated with Couzens had also been identified in another indecent exposure allegation in Kent in 2015 but that investigation resulted in no further action.
When Couzens joined the police force in 2018, vetting did not flag up the connection.
Mr Ephgrave said the Met had been referred to the Independent Office For Police Conduct over the Swanley incident and a file sent to the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to the alleged crime itself.
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He added: “We ask anyone in the service or any member of the public that might have any information about Couzens’s behaviour – either as an officer or member of the public – that might be relevant, please come forward.”
The police watchdog is also investigating five officers over claims they sent misogynistic, racist and homophobic material with Couzens over WhatsApp months before he killed Ms Everard, according to a report in The Times.
On Thursday, the Old Bailey had heard that Couzens used his Metropolitan Police-issued warrant card and handcuffs to abduct Ms Everard as she walked home in London on the night of 3 March, citing lockdown rules to make her think she was being arrested.
The firearms-trained parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer drove to a secluded rural area near Dover where he raped her.
He strangled her with his police-issue belt by 2.30am the following morning.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has resisted calls to resign and said she will “do everything in (her) power to ensure any lessons are learned”.
The Met said it would publish a new strategy for tackling violence against women and girls, and that it would no longer deploy plain clothes officers on their own.
Met Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House told the London Assembly’s police and crime committee on Thursday that the actions of Couzens had raised questions on recruitment and vetting, adding: “We know we have to work to rebuild trust and confidence, and we will do all we can to achieve that.”
Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, who led the murder investigation, said: “As you would expect, we have a number of inquiries ongoing to establish whether Wayne Couzens is responsible for any other offences.
“Thus far, there is nothing of the nature or seriousness of the offences for which he has been put in prison today.”
She added that she would never forget witnessing the recovery of Ms Everard’s body, after it had been identified by police dogs in a Kent pond.
She said: “Officers took off hats as a mark of respect.
“After the terrible way he had treated her, we wanted to show her the utmost respect and care.”
Rishi Sunak has failed to rule out holding a general election in July, as speculation remains rife over the timing of the national vote.
The prime minister has repeatedly said his “working assumption” is the election would take place in the second half of this year – with the law stating January 2025 is the latest he could call it.
But while many commentators have predicted an autumn vote, Sky News’ Trevor Phillips put to Mr Sunak that it could mean as early as July.
In his interview – which will air in full on Sunday at 8.30am – Trevor Phillips pushed Mr Sunak five times over whether he would rule out a July general election, but the Conservative leader refused to confirm or deny if it could take place then.
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“You’re going to try and draw whatever conclusion you want from what I say,” he said. “I’m going to always try and say the same thing. You should just listen to what I said, [the] same thing I’ve said all year.
“But the point is… there’s a choice when it comes to the general election. And look, over the past week or so… the country can have a very clear sense of what that difference is going to look like.”
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“And when the election comes, there’ll be a clear choice, because the Labour Party has tried to frustrate our Rwanda bill, because they don’t believe in stopping the boats, their economic plan will put people’s taxes up.
“They haven’t said that they will invest more in our defence and they certainly don’t agree with reforming our welfare system to support people into work.”
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Labour has said it wants to match the hike in defence spending when the financial circumstances allow, and has promised to scrap the Rwanda bill if it gets into power.
This week, its pre-election focus has been on railways, promising to renationalise train operators and “sweep away” the current “broken” model if the party wins the next election.
Migrants travelling to Ireland after arriving in the UK on small boats is a sign the Rwanda scheme is already working as a deterrent, Rishi Sunak has said.
Sky News’s Trevor Phillips asked the prime minister if migrants finding their way to Ireland was a sign the UK was “exporting the problem”.
In his interview – which will air in full on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show tomorrow at 8.30am – Mr Sunak was asked about the comments, saying they illustrated “the deterrent is… already having an impact”.
“People are worried about coming here and that demonstrates exactly what I’m saying,” he said. “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay there, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”
Downing Street on Friday rebuffed claims the Rwanda plan was already influencing movements into Ireland, saying it was too early to jump to conclusions on its impact.
Mr Sunak said the comments also illustrate “that illegal migration is a global challenge”.
“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe will follow where the UK has led,” he said.
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Mr Martin told The Daily Telegraph that the policy was already affecting Ireland, as people were “fearful” of staying in the UK.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister said: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”
Mr Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister, said asylum seekers were looking “to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda”.
On the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which finally became law this week after so-called “ping pong” between the Commons and the House of Lords, Mr Sunak said a deterrent was the only way to stop the boats.
“We did just have an important moment this week that in spite of all the opposition from the Labour Party we have passed the Rwanda bill through Parliament in the face of enormous opposition,” he told Sir Trevor.
“That’s important because the only way to fully solve this problem is to have a deterrent, so that if people come to a country illegally, they’re not able to stay, and we can return them.”
Refugee groups in Ireland admit that the threat of being deported to Rwanda is, as the Irish government claims, driving migrants across the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic.
Nick Henderson of the Irish Refugee Council told Sky News: “As long as there is a Rwanda policy and the Illegal Migration Act which states that somebody can’t lodge an application for asylum in the UK and have it considered if they enter in an irregular way, it’s going to have knock-on effects on Ireland, that’s plain to see.”
Now that the Rwanda legislation has finally become law, Tory MPs believe the PM can no longer blame his political opponents in parliament, in the Commons and the Lords, if it fails to stop the boats.
The danger for Mr Sunak, even his supporters concede, is that even if planes do take off for Rwanda this summer and some migrants head for Ireland, it may not stop the tide of more illegal migrants crossing the channel.
His comments came after Ireland’s justice minister told a committee of the Irish Parliament she estimates more than 80% of migrants in the Republic had crossed from Northern Ireland.
The UK’s prime minister told Trevor Phillips his focus “is on the United Kingdom and securing our border”.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill became an Act on Thursday, with Number 10 announcing the same day that the first deportation plane had been booked.
After a number of setbacks and delays, the bill passed in parliament earlier this weekand then received royal assent, with Home Secretary James Cleverly hailing the approval as a “landmark moment in our plan to stop the boats”.
Anticipating the bill’s passage, the prime minister earlier this week promised the first flights would take off in 10 to 12 weeks – “come what may”.
Conservative MP and former health minister Dan Poulter has defected to Labour.
The MP for Suffolk Central and Ipswich North, with a majority of 23,321 at the last election, has indicated he is not planning to stand at the next general election.
The defection was revealed in an article on The Observer website, in which the part-time GP outlined why he was switching parties.
He said: “The chaos of today’s fragmented patchwork of community addiction services – making A&E the default location for people to get treatment and help – has added pressure to an already overstretched service.
“The mental toll of a service stretched close to breaking point is not confined to patients and their families. It also weighs heavily on my NHS colleagues who are unable to deliver the right care in a system that simply no longer works for our patients.
“It is this which has led me today to have resigned from the Conservative party to focus on my work as a doctor and to support Keir Starmer.”
He told The Observer the Conservatives had become “a nationalist party of the right” in the last eight years.
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“It is not to say all [Tory] MPs are like that,” he said.
“There are good MPs, but it feels that the party is ever moving rightwards, ever presenting a more nationalist position.”
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The mental health doctor sent his resignation to the prime minister Rishi Sunak, saying: “After deep reflection and much heart-searching, I have decided, in all professional conscience, that I can no longer continue as a member of the Conservative Party.”
The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrated his defection on social media.
“It’s fantastic to welcome Dr Dan Poulter MP to today’s changed Labour Party,” he said in a post on X.
“It’s time to end the Conservative chaos, turn the page, and get Britain’s future back. I’m really pleased that Dan has decided to join us on this journey.”
Sky’s Jon Craig called the defection a “disastrous blow for the Conservatives and a massive propaganda coup for Labour.”
“Dr Poulter’s defection means the Commons majority of 80, won by Boris Johnson in December 2019, is now just 41, roughly half what it was three-and-a-half years ago,” he added.
“But more than the terrible numbers, bad as they are, it is his threat to support Labour on the NHS in the run-up to the general election that will alarm the Conservatives.”
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Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said in a tweet: “Proud to welcome Dr Dan Poulter MP to the @UKLabour Party.
“As a frontline clinician, he’s seen the damage that 14 years of Conservative government have done to our NHS.
“Delighted to have his support and look forward to working with him, especially on mental health reform.”
A Conservative Party spokesperson responded to the resignation by saying: “For the people of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich this will be disappointing news. What Dan says is wrong as Sir Keir Starmer has no plan for our NHS.
“Under the Conservatives we are raising NHS funding to a record £165 billion a year, helping it recover from the effects of the pandemic and driving forward its first ever long-term workforce plan so that we train the doctors and nurses we need for the future in our country.
“Thanks to our plan, we have already virtually eliminated the longest waits and overall waiting lists have fallen by 200,000 in the last five months – and we will go further to make sure everyone gets the world-class care they need.
“This stands in stark contrast to the Welsh NHS – run into the ground by the Welsh Labour Government over the last 25 years which has waiting lists and waiting times way beyond what is being delivered in England.”