Dozens of police officers convicted of crimes including rape and sexual assault since Sarah Everard’s murder
Dozens of police officers across the UK have been convicted of crimes including rape, sexual assault and sex offences against children in the three years since the murder of Sarah Everard, new data shows.
Officers have also been convicted of assault, possession of indecent images, harassment and controlling and coercive behaviour since 3 March 2021 – the day Ms Everard was abducted, a Sky News investigation has found.
Just 19 forces out of 48 provided details of officers convicted of crimes – with one alleged victim of abuse by a policeman saying the figures are likely to be “just scratching the surface”.
Ms Everard was walking home in Clapham, south London, when she was abducted, raped and murdered by then-serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.
Wayne Couzens
Data released by the 19 forces under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act shows that in the three years since Ms Everard’s killing, at least 119 officers have been convicted of crimes.
The actual number is likely to be much higher as most forces – including the Met Police – did not provide details of officers’ convictions.
At least 16 officers were convicted of assault or battery. Nine were convicted of rape or sexual assault, with one also convicted of attempted rape, the forces revealed.
Four were charged with sexual offences against children, including causing or inciting a child to engage in a sexual act, engaging in sexual communication with a child and sexual exposure to a minor.
Some 13 officers were convicted of possession or making of indecent images, four were convicted of possession of extreme pornographic imagery; two were convicted of fraud; two of controlling and coercive behaviour; one of harassment, and one of grievous bodily harm.
The majority of those convicted were men and serving as constables, according to the data.
The FOI requests were sent to the 39 territorial police forces in England, four in Wales, Police Scotland and the Police Service in Northern Ireland, as well as the Ministry of Defence Police, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the States of Jersey Police.
Some forces did not respond at all, with most citing delays and backlogs in initial emails.
Those that rejected Sky News’ requests said retrieving details of convictions by officers would require manual reviews of files that would exceed the time limit set out under the FOI Act.
The Met Police – where Couzens and serial rapists David Carrick and Cliff Mitchell all served – had not responded to Sky News’ request at the time of publication.
Rick Muir, the director of the Police Foundation thinktank, said: “There’s a massive problem with the quality of the data that these forces hold generally.”
Rick Muir
Freya, not her real name, was married to a police officer who she claims used coercive control against her and allegedly raped her.
Now in her 50s, she says the first time she contacted police about his behaviour after he allegedly threatened her with a knife, officers just “had words” with him when he answered the door.
She says she reported him to police about the alleged rape when she tried to leave the marriage but she was never asked to provide a statement and was not informed of any further action taken against him.
Freya – who set up the website Police Me Too in 2021 to hear the accounts of abuse victims whose perpetrators were police officers – says she has severe PTSD and attempted to take her own life several times as a result of her experience.
Read more:
How Sarah Everard’s killer was caught
Timeline: Wayne Couzen’s behaviour and crimes
Freya said the number of known criminal officers is “just scratching the surface” due to the difficulties that victims face reporting offences.
“To me, I felt the organisation’s reputation was prioritised over protecting mine and my children’s lives,” she said.
“When it’s a police officer, you don’t have anywhere to go.
“We’re told to go to the police, but when it’s in police, who do you go to?”
“To me, this is about a deep, ingrained culture that goes back decades in every force in the country.”
While Mr Muir said it was “good news” that more people were reporting crimes against officers, he added: “It’s a negative thing in that it indicates that the culture within policing has allowed some of these people to continue as police officers for far too long.”
On Thursday, Lady Elish Angiolini’s report into Ms Everard’s rape and murder found that Couzens “could and should” have been stopped and called for a “radical overhaul” of police recruitment to stop “another Couzens operating in plain sight”.
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‘Couzens was never fit to be police officer’
The report highlighted how major red flags about Couzens were “repeatedly ignored” by police vetting and investigations.
In response to the data provided to Sky News, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said forces were “working towards a culture in policing where everyone feels they are able to recognise and report concerning behaviour, alongside members of the public reporting any worrying interactions with a police officer”.
NPCC chairman Gavin Stephens said: “The harrowing murder of Sarah Everard, carried out by a serving police officer, who abused his position of trust, has caused untold suffering. Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer. His offending should have been stopped sooner. This should never have happened.
“As police leaders, we must do everything humanly possible to change policing for future generations, and we are taking action to ensure that there is nowhere to hide in policing for wrongdoers, that our misconduct and vetting processes are reformed, and that our ethics and values are reset.”
He added: “We know that change has not been quick enough and that there is much more that we must still do.
“We do not underestimate just how important this is for society and we will not stop until the public, especially women and girls, get the police service they expect and deserve and their confidence in our role as protectors is rebuilt.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
UK
Refusing mandatory National Service won’t lead to prison, home secretary says after Tory policy launch
Nobody would go to jail for refusing to comply with National Service under a Conservative government, the home secretary has said.
In the Conservatives’ first policy announcement of the general election campaign, Rishi Sunak said on Saturday he would introduce a new form of mandatory National Service for 18-year-olds if his party wins the vote in July.
They would be given the choice of a full-time military placement for 12 months or a scheme to volunteer for one weekend a month for a year.
The announcement came two days after defence minister Dr Andrew Murrison told the Commons the government has “no plans” to reintroduce National Service and doing so would “damage morale, recruitment and retention and would consume professional military and naval resources”.
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Cleverly questioned on National Service plan
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‘Refusing National Service won’t lead to jail’
The military option would be selective but questions have arisen over whether any teenager who refuses to do either option would be punished.
Talking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “There’s going to be no criminal sanctions, nobody’s going to jail over this.”
He added that “nobody will be compelled to do the military element” but said those who do will be paid – while those who choose to volunteer will not be paid.
Mr Cleverly said the main point of the policy is to make sure “people mix with people outside their bubble” for “community cohesion”.
He said those who choose the military option “will be motivated to join the military” after spending a year with the Armed Forces.
Mr Sunak released a video on TikTok on Sunday explaining the new policy to young adults.
No plans to reintroduce National Service
The military service announcement came just two days after defence minister Dr Andrew Murrison answered a question from fellow Conservative Mark Pritchard about whether an assessment had been made to reintroduce National Service.
Dr Murrison said: “The government has no current plans to reintroduce National Service.”
He said the “demanding, increasingly technical, nature of defence” means highly trained, professional men and women are needed to best defend the country.
“If potentially unwilling National Service recruits were to be obliged to serve alongside the professional men and women of our Armed Forces, it could damage morale, recruitment and retention and would consume professional military and naval resources,” he said.
Dr Murrison added that if National Service recruits were in separate units it would be “difficult to find a proper and meaningful role for them, potentially harming motivation and discipline”.
‘Surprise’ policy move dreided as ‘deeply cynical’ by defence insider
The prime minister appears to have had what some insiders regard as a belated epiphany about the critical importance of defence – and now even National Service.
It was just four months ago that Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson slapped down the outgoing head of the army for advocating the need for civilians to be trained to fight given the dangers of living in what the defence secretary has called “a pre-war world”.
General Sir Patrick Sanders had simply been using a speech to state a blunt reality – war and preparing for war is a whole-nation effort as demonstrated daily by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where Ukrainian citizen soldiers are fighting and dying on the frontline.
Rather than support him, a Downing Street spokesperson at the time said that “hypothetical scenarios” involving possible wars were “not helpful” and ruled out any move towards a conscription model for the military.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Cohesive society
Despite this clear rejection of the idea, the Conservatives have made it their first new major policy announcement.
Mr Cleverly said: “We want to build a society where people mix with people outside their own communities, mix with people from different backgrounds, different religions, different income levels.
“The bulk of this is about helping build a cohesive society where people mix outside their bubble.”
The Conservatives said the National Service programme would cost £2.5bn a year and would be funded by cash previously used for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion.
Read more on Sky News:
Labour could lose votes on defence – but probably not because of Sunak’s big bet on security
James Cleverly speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News
But Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, accused the policy of being “yet another unfunded spending commitment”.
She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “That UK Prosperity Fund is supposed to be used to tackle economic inactivity and helping people get back into work so that really undermines another one of their arguments.
“This is an unfunded commitment, a headline-grabbing gimmick.”
She added that it does not deal with the big challenges facing young people, and said Labour has a “fully costed, fully funded plan to give young people those real opportunities that they need to build up”.
UK
‘Deeply cynical’ Sunak’s ‘policy surprise’ doesn’t change the fact next PM will have no time to play politics with defence
The prime minister appears to have had a belated epiphany about the critical importance of defence – and now even National Service.
It was just four months ago that Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson slapped down the outgoing head of the army for advocating the need for civilians to be trained to fight given the dangers of living in what the defence secretary has called “a pre-war world”.
General Sir Patrick Sanders had simply been using a speech to state a blunt reality – war and preparing for war is a whole-nation effort as demonstrated daily by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where Ukrainian citizen soldiers are fighting and dying on the frontline.
Read more on Russians winning production war:
Ukrainians forced to pretend in training
Rather than support him, a Downing Street spokesperson at the time said that “hypothetical scenarios” involving possible wars were “not helpful” and ruled out any move towards a conscription model for the military.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, and David Williams, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), apparently even summoned General Sanders for a dressing down over the remarks.
But the army chief had not been suggesting conscription then – just as the prime minister is not doing so now.
He had simply been talking about the need for civilians to be ready to serve.
Given that context, Mr Sunak’s sudden announcement that he would introduce a new form of National Service for 18-year-olds, including the chance to spend 12 months serving in the armed forces, sent eyebrows within the MoD soaring skyward.
“Deeply cynical,” was the verdict of one insider.
Another told Sky News: “This is a policy surprise to me. I haven’t seen it discussed in the Ministry of Defence.”
The need for greater national resilience is a theme that Sky News has been exploring as part of its series Prepared for War?
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Sky News asks: Is the UK ready for war?
We revealed in April that the government has no national plan for the defence of the UK or the mobilisation of its people and industry in a war.
The rallying cry from Mr Sunak for National Service comes after he chose to make defence a central theme of his election campaign even though as prime minister and chancellor he was accused by insiders of pushing back against demands from the military for more funding.
He only finally committed last month to a timeframe for a pledge to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income from just over 2% at present – saying this would happen by 2030.
Mr Sunak then turned on Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, for failing to give the same guarantee – even though that had previously been his position, too.
The main problem facing either the Conservative or Labour leader when it comes to defence is that repeated cost-saving cuts to the armed forces under both administrations since the end of the Cold War have left the UK weaker.
Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, growing threats from China, an increasingly aggressive North Korea, and the potential for war with Iran in the Middle East means the world is more dangerous now than at any time since the Cold War.
Read more:
Teenagers will not be jailed for evading National Service
Adam Boulton: Labour could lose votes on defence
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Could China invade Taiwan?
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
This will force defence to be a priority in terms of actions rather than just words for whoever becomes the next prime minister.
In fact, their first foreign trip will likely be to Washington on 9 July – just four days after taking office – for a major NATO summit against the backdrop of looming US presidential elections and a potential return of Donald Trump to the White House.
Goals for the summit – which will mark 75 years of the alliance – will include a collective bolstering of defences and resilience to deter external threats as well as a need to demonstrate internally to Mr Trump that NATO is value for money.
Given the gravity of the moment, there will be no time for playing politics with defence.
Nicki Minaj’s concert at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester, attended by thousands of fans, has been postponed at the last minute after she was arrested hours earlier in the Netherlands.
The American singer and rapper, 41, was held at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on suspicion of possession of soft drugs.
And fans had been let into the Manchester indoor venue on Saturday evening despite the star’s detention.
A post on the arena’s X account said shortly after 5.15pm: “Please note that general admission and premium doors for tonight’s Nicki Minaj show will now open at 19:00.”
What’s going on at Manchester’s Co-op Live?
Minaj was later released from custody just before 9pm but she will have to pay an undisclosed fine for “illegally exporting soft drugs from the Netherlands to another country”, Dutch police told Sky News.
Despite her release, she was not able to make it to Manchester and the gig will be moved to a later date with a statement from promoters Live Nation saying: “Tickets will remain valid for the rescheduled performance which will be announced ASAP.”
It added: “Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible. We are deeply disappointed by the inconvenience this has caused.”
In a series of social media posts on X and Instagram, Minaj earlier claimed police said they found drugs in her luggage after items were checked by customs.
She wrote on X that “they said they found weed”. She also claimed “they took my luggage without consent” and “they’re trying to keep me from MANCHESTER”.
The messages also included one where she wrote: “This is Amsterdam btw, where weed is legal.”
The Co-op Live arena in Manchester. Pic: PA
The star, whose hit songs include Starships, Super Bass and Anaconda, also filmed what appeared to be an airport official asking her to have her luggage checked.
Minaj later wrote: “It’s a 45 minute to an hour flight. So they’re probably trying to stall for about 4 hours.”
And she added: “Now they said I have to go 5 mins away to make a statement about my security to the police precinct.”
Asked about Minaj, Robert van Kapel, a spokesman for the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee military police, earlier told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News: “We can confirm that we have arrested a 41-year-old American woman at Schiphol Airport because of possession of soft drugs.”
Fans of the singer expressed their dismay at the decision to postpone the concert.
“Die-hard Nicki fan” Charu, who had travelled from Liverpool for the show, said the evening was “so ridiculously disappointing”.
“My sister and I had been looking forward to this for months. I’m in the middle of taking my medical school exams and I had been working around this day and was so looking forward to it,” they said.
“People around us said they’d travelled from Ireland and Scotland, paid for hotels for the night in Manchester, which is not cheap.
“So the fact that tickets will be refunded or still valid for another concert doesn’t really put into perspective the time and money that we have all spent on this night.”
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They added: “Her team surely would have known that the concert tonight was not going to be possible but to wait until 9.30pm to let us know feels disrespectful of our time and efforts.”
Charu said that concert-goers were “sobbing” after the announcement, and they will not be getting their hopes up about attending the rescheduled concert.
“Whenever she may postpone it to, it isn’t guaranteed that people can take time off work, be able to afford trains, flights, hotels to be able to make it to the show. It’s just very disappointing and upsetting.”
As part of her Pink Friday 2 World Tour, Minaj is due to perform in Birmingham on Sunday, followed by a concert at London’s O2 arena next Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday, she is due to play in Glasgow followed by a gig on Thursday, again at the Co-op Live in Manchester.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The beleaguered £365m arena – the UK’s largest indoor entertainment venue – opened earlier this month after it was plagued by a series of problems.
There had been weeks of setbacks, cancellations and postponements, before live music finally got under way there on 14 May when Manchester rock band Elbow took to the stage.
The problems included part of the building’s ventilation and air conditioning system falling to the ground from the ceiling during a soundcheck in early May.
The 23,500-capacity venue was initially due to fully open with two Peter Kay stand-up shows on 23 and 24 April, but these dates were pushed back when problems emerged at a test event headlined by Ricky Astley.
The arena then planned for US rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie to open the arena on 1 May, but it was called off just over an hour before his performance and after doors had opened to fans – because the ventilation system became detached.
The ventilation issue meant scheduled performances by US pop star Olivia Rodrigo and British band Keane were postponed, while a series of shows by Take That were moved to the AO Arena in Manchester.
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