Police KNEW a Wayne Couzens was accused of flashing but failed to identify him as a Met officer

A McDonald’s worker who was flashed by Wayne Couzens today blasted police for ‘not acting quickly enough’ after they were handed CCTV of him at the drive-thru three days before Sarah Everard’s murder – as it emerged officers knew his name but failed to identify him as one of their officers until after the tragedy.  

The woman, who did not want to be named, said that two incidents of Couzens exposing himself took place in February as he arrived in his car late at night at a drive-thru on the A20 near Swanley in Kent with his trousers down. Police were told of the allegations on February 28 although the incidents took place earlier that month. 

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, she fumed: ‘The police took our statements and took away CCTV. If they had taken this more seriously, they could easily have figured out that he was a policeman who had committed these crimes. The police had three days to stop him but didn’t. It could have stopped him from doing a lot worse.’

Previously it was known the incidents had been reported to police, but the fact officers knew his name but did not realise he was a serving Met policeman – which MailOnline can reveal today – will be seen as fresh evidence he could have been exposed as a sexual predator before he went on to kidnap, rape and strangle the 33-year-old. 

Address searches show there are very few people sharing the killer’s name in the country, and even fewer in London and the South East – meaning a basic investigation would have identified the Diplomatic Protection Officer as the suspect. 

Had detectives understood the full picture at the time, it is likely Couzens would have been suspended. Officers are then usually put on restricted duties, which means they must hand in their warrant card and cannot have any contact with the public. 

To carry out his horrific crime, the fiend showed Miss Everard his warrant card to force her into his car as part of a fake Covid arrest. He then used his Met-issued equipment to handcuff the marketing executive before strangling her with his police belt.

The Met said the McDonald’s allegations were ‘allocated for investigation’ but ‘by the time of Sarah’s abduction it was not concluded’. It referred itself to the Independent Office of Police Conduct, which is investigating the force’s alleged failure to investigate. 

Today’s revelation will heap yet more pressure on beleaguered Met commissioner Cressida Dick – who has been facing demands to resign over the multiple missed chances to expose Couzens as a threat to women before he was able to finally fulfill his sick fantasy.

As the Met and its Commissioner faced yet another crisis, it also emerged today –  

Furious MPs are demanding an independent inquiry into Miss Everard’s murder amid anger at ‘deeply insulting’ Met Police guidance telling women to ‘wave down a bus’ if they don’t trust a male officer; Met detectives are actively investigating if killer cop Wayne Couzens is connected to any further historic crimes;Couzens exchanged misogynistic, racist and homophobic texts with his police colleagues who are now facing a criminal investigation. 16 officers are being probed;Met chief Cressida Dick still faces a clamour to resign after she admitted Sarah Everard’s murder had corroded trust in the police and brought ‘shame’ on her force’.

Staff at the Swanley McDonald’s told police on February 28 that two female members of staff had been flashed by a motorist who exposed himself on February 7 and again on February 27. 

Last night, an official statement said the crimes had been ‘allocated for investigation’ by the time of Miss Everard’s abduction but it was not concluded. It added that the case remained a ‘live criminal inquiry’.

The Met is being investigated by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) over how it handled the case. In last night’s statement, it said officers’ approach to indecent exposure reports was being ‘re-evaluated’.  

The female McDonald’s worker said the first incident occurred when Couzens bought a coffee and a Big Mac with fries at the drive-thru. When she looked down from the serving hatch, the woman saw that he was not wearing any trousers.

The woman revealed that she informed management immediately that night but was left so disturbed that she did not take down any details of his vehicle and was only able to provide a brief description of him, as he was wearing a mask.

The next time Couzens allegedly exposed himself to another female McDonald’s worker who was aged around 18. She managed to note down the registration number of the killer cop’s car and the make and model, prompting management to inform police shortly afterwards, it is claimed. 

Couzens is said to have visited the McDonald’s in his blue Seat car, which he used to carry Everard to her death in Kent.

She was initially abducted in south London on March 3 in another car he hired for the crime before transferring her to the Seat, which he had deliberately left in an isolated location in Dover.

After being informed of the two indecent exposure incidents by McDonald’s management, officers arrived at the Swanley branch on February 28, where they interviewed both women, some of their colleagues and were also provided with CCTV footage.

The woman added: ‘The officers came to the MacDonald’s sat us down and we gave them all the details about what happened. They went away with a lot of evidence and CCTV.

‘If you ask me, they had good information to go on. But I don’t think any of us expected the case would escalate so quickly and that Sarah would be murdered just a few days later.’

The woman said she only realised that it was Couzens who had exposed himself to her following his arrest when she saw a picture of his blue Seat car in the media and another of him holding a drink.

She recalled: ‘I saw the blue car and there was a picture of him with a drink. He had very specific hands and I joined the dots and realised that it was him. It sent a cold shiver through me.

‘He had very distinctive, heavy hands, they were like clubs. I noticed them when I handed him the coffee at the drive thru and when I saw them in the picture, I knew it was the same man who had exposed himself to me.’

Recalling the moment Couzens allegedly exposed himself to her, the woman said: ‘The whole thing left me quite disturbed. He casually pulled up to the serving hatch having ordered his food and I could clearly see that he was naked from below the waist.

‘I’m glad that I reported him. I wanted to show my younger female colleagues that this behaviour is not acceptable, and women should not have to put up with it.’

The woman, who is a devout Christian, revealed that following Couzens arrest, she had been told that he had exposed himself to other women working at businesses in the Kent area.

She added: ‘It was not the first time that he had done this when he came to McDonald’s and I’ve since heard that he’d done it at other places too.

‘I’m glad I took a stand and alerted the authorities because it was the right thing do. But I never imagined that he would go on to murder a woman, it’s tragic.’

The woman claimed that since providing a statement to police on February 28 and Couzens subsequent arrest, she has not been contacted by officers.

The IOPC is also looking into Kent Police – where Couzens used to work as a volunteer – after it was accused of not investigating reports in 2015 that a man had been spotted driving down a road with no trousers on.

Met Police admitted ‘one of a range of checks’ when Couzens applied to join the force ‘may not have been undertaken correctly’.

ouzens’ car number plate was linked to the 2015 indecent exposure but Met Police blamed the Kent force, claiming ‘Kent Police investigated this allegation and decided to take no further action. Our review found that the record of this allegation and outcome may not have been found during the vetting checks.’

It came as fresh details of Couzens’ sexual perversion continued to emerge today – as the Met revealed a new strategy to counter violence against women.

Reports said Couzens exchanged misogynistic, racist and homophobic texts with police colleagues who are now facing a criminal investigation.

Five serving officers, three of whom work for the Metropolitan Police, and one former officer, allegedly shared horrific content with Sarah Everard’s killer on a WhatsApp group in the months before the murder.

After his arrest in March, detectives found the ‘vile’ texts on his phone which the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IOPC) said were of a ‘discriminatory and/or inappropriate nature’.

Aside from the three serving officers working for the Met, one under investigation is from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and another works for Norfolk Constabulary, according to The Times.

The former officer in the group also previously worked for the Met, prompting yet more calls for Dame Cressida to go.

And when Sue Fish, a former chief constable of Nottinghamshire, was asked on Times Radio if she believed the police force was institutionally misogynistic, she replied: ‘Yes, I do. And that’s not just the Metropolitan Police, that’s policing, structurally, across the country.’ 

Furious MPs demand independent inquiry into murder of Sarah Everard amid anger at ‘deeply insulting’ Met Police guidance telling women to ‘wave down a BUS’ if they don’t trust a male officer – as ex-commissioner slams ‘extraordinary blunders’

By Martin Robinson, Chief Reporter for MailOnline

MPs today called for an independent inquiry into the murder of Sarah Everard and how the Metropolitan Police failed to root out Wayne Couzens – a serving armed officer who would go on to abduct and kill the marketing executive using his warrant card and cuffs.

Scotland Yard was today accused of pouring scorn on frightened women in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder after the force’s new ‘deeply insulting’ and ‘derisory’ strategy urged them to ‘wave down a bus’ if they fear being abducted by police.

Its ‘tone deaf’ advice also urges women to ‘run into a house’, ‘shout out to a passer-by’ or call 999 if they don’t trust a policeman who has stopped them. 

The Met’s advise to flag down a bus has caused particular anger – with Labour calling on Priti Patel to call an independent Home Office inquiry into violence against women and girls by Met Police officers and staff. 

The inquiry would look at Sarah’s murder and Couzens use of his powers to kidnap her  – but also cases involving police officers and staff who attacked women as well as the 10 murders of women in capital in the past year including Sabina Nessa in Kidbrooke a fortnight ago and sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry in last year. Officers guarding the crime scene shared selfies with their bodies.  

Today former Met Commissioner Lord Stevens said there had been ‘extraordinary blunders’ in the run up to Sarah’s murder and the forces’ vetting system is not ‘fit for purpose’ because he slipped through the net and went go on to commit the appalling crimes. 

He said: ‘The fact that this individual in 2015 was seen to be driving around without any clothes on from his waist downwards, the fact he was called a rapist, the fact that he was a really strange individual, I mean there is no way that that man should have been given a gun. A proper vetting process, the vetting process is obviously not fit for the purpose and this needs all to be changed, it’s an extraordinary story of blunders and of that there’s no doubt’. 

Jess Phillips, Labour’s shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said the advice is ‘tone deaf’, adding she ‘would have got in the car and almost anybody would have got in the car’ and ‘the onus is on the Metropolitan Police to do better’.

Shadow cabinet member Wes Streeting said: ‘Apparently bus drivers should stop if someone is waving them down in the street away from a bus stop, just in case, because that’s a better answer than the Met getting their act together?! Utterly woeful’. 

As another crisis engulfed the Met, Policing minister Kit Malthouse admitted the case had struck a ‘devastating blow to the confidence that people have in police officers’, and he warned thousands of officers will need to do more so trust can be rebuilt. 

Women in London have said that they would now run away if faced with a lone officer after Wayne Couzens staged an arrest using lockdown laws to abduct, rape and murder Sarah on March 3.

One said she would be ‘scared, frightened and try to get away from them because I wouldn’t trust any policeman again after what happened to Sarah’. Another said: ‘If it happened to me I’d be so worried I’d just get into my car and drive’.

It came as Dame Cressida Dick came under more pressure to resign over the scandal – and to fix the force’s toxic culture – after it emerged Couzens exchanged misogynistic, racist and homophobic texts with his police colleagues. Former Commissioner Lord Stevens said today there had been ‘extraordinary blunders’ before Couzens struck and the case showed the Met’s vetting system is not ‘fit for purpose’. 

Dame Cressida said yesterday she was ‘sorry’ and ‘sickened’ at how Couzens was able to abuse his position but refused to quit as female officers claimed they were afraid to report their male colleagues for misconduct because they ‘close ranks’ and could abandon them on calls where they would have their ‘heads kicked in’ while waiting for backup.

Since March 2020 when Sarah Everard, 33, was murdered by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, some 77 women have been killed, according to Rape Crisis. Two weeks ago, primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, 28, was found dead in a park also in south London, described in court as a ‘predatory’ murder.

Legal experts have predicted that bus drivers stopping for women could get arrested themselves.

Lawyer and commentator David Green said: ‘Imagine the scenes of a person challenging what may be a lawful arrest by stopping a bus and getting the bus driver involved.

‘It would probably end up with the hapless bus driver being arrested as well.

‘One gets the sense that the writer of this police statement had, by the end of it, ran out of ideas and was winging it like an unprepared student in the last half-hour of an examination.

‘But even the other advice in the statement is unrealistic and misconceived.

‘Anyone challenging arrest can say hello to the offence of resisting or wilfully obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty. They may also say hello to Mr Taser.’ 

As part if its new strategy, the Met has pledged to deploy 650 new officers and increase patrols to do more to protect women and girls in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder by Couzens – but critics questioned why they weren’t doing that already. 

And anyone stopped on the street is encouraged to call 999 or use the officer’s radio to confirm their warrant card is genuine – but many have pointed out that many not have stopped Couzens kidnapping Sarah because his warrant card and number was genuine.

Even Sir Stephen House, the Met’s deputy commissioner, admitted yesterday that warrant cards may not be enough for officers to prove their identity in future.  

Patsy Stevenson, who was arrested at the vigil for Sarah Everard in March, said the Metropolitan Police’s suggestions of knocking on a door or waving a bus down were ‘almost laughable if it wasn’t so disgusting’.

The force advised anyone who is concerned a police officer is not acting legitimately during an interaction to ask where the officer’s colleagues are; where they have come from; why they are there; and exactly why they are stopping or talking to them.

Anyone could verify the police officer by asking to hear their radio operator or asking to speak to the radio operator themselves, the force said, also suggesting that people who are concerned can shout out to a passer-by, run into a house, knock on a door, wave a bus down, or call 999.

Ms Stevenson told the PA news agency: ‘I feel like they are just clutching at straws, because the advice isn’t relevant. It’s like a distraction because, number one, in that situation, you can’t just stop and hail down a bus or a taxi or something.

‘Can you imagine the distrust that people have right now where they have to protect themselves from the police in that manner? That is shocking.’

She said if someone had done something illegal it is the police giving them permission to run off, adding: ‘It doesn’t make any sense. It’s like an irrelevant piece of advice. So I feel like it reads more like a distraction for them to seem like they’re dealing with the issue, because they could have been enacting change for ages now, but they haven’t, and they’re still not doing it, they’re just putting out a statement to quieten people down.’

The chairman of the Commons Justice Committee has said the Government should consider making misogyny a hate crime in the way that racism was following the Macpherson Inquiry into the killing of Stephen Lawrence.

Tory MP Sir Bob Neill told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One: ‘One of the things that was good after Macpherson was that it was recognised in due course that racism ought to be regarded as a particularly aggravating feature.

‘We have made racially motivated offences a hate crime. I think there is a case now for looking at misogyny.’

Women have said that the new advice piles more pressure on them – rather than tackling violent men – with some saying that it ‘grossly insulting’ with the Met accused of releasing a guide to ‘what they believe Sarah should have done’. 

Comedian Sooz Kempner said: ‘It’s deeply insulting to Sarah’s memory, her family and to women everywhere to now have ‘in future, ladies, here’s what you can do that Sarah failed to do to’ spouted at us when taking some form of action against the man nicknamed ‘the rapist’ by colleagues was always an option’.

She added: ‘Waving down a bus when you’re not even at a bus stop is a complete impossibility anyway, they don’t stop, you’d be lucky to get a second glance from the driver. And I dunno if you’ve heard but buses aren’t just constantly driving down every single road 24/7’.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: ‘We want to know what the Met are doing to address the deeply rooted problems with violence against women within the force. This completely derisory advice shows they’re still not taking it seriously. And they wonder why trust is at an all-time low?’ 

Left-wing commentator Ash Sarkar said: ‘Wayne Couzens was nicknamed ‘The Rapist’, shared racist and misogynistic messages with colleagues, and committed indecent in a car registered to him 72 hours before murdering someone. But it’s Sarah Everard who should’ve waved down a bus’.

Writer Oriane Messina said: ‘Don’t go out alone at night. Don’t wear short dresses. Don’t trust an officer on his own. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t draw attention to yourself. Don’t drink too much. Don’t be flashy. Don’t be too weak looking. HANG ON…. How about telling men don’t rape and murder women’. 

Lord Justice Fulford said his decision to hand Couzens, 48, a whole-life tariff was significantly influenced by the way he had exploited his role as a police officer, a fact he said made the offence equal in seriousness to a murder carried out by a terrorist. 

The force has announced that 650 new officers will be deployed in public places to better protect women and girls in the wake of Miss Everard’s murder.

After stinging criticism over its handling of the case, the force vowed to increase patrols and publish a new strategy for tackling violence against women.

The strategy will outline how the Met will prioritise action against sexual and violent predatory offenders.

The force said it had also set up ‘predatory offender units’, which have arrested more than 2,000 suspects for domestic abuse, sex offences, and child abuse since November.

The 650 new officers will be sent into busy public places, including areas where women and girls ‘lack confidence that they are safe’, the Met said. The force will ‘step up’ patrols and provide an increased police presence in areas identified as hotspot locations for violence and harassment.

A Met Police spokesman said: ‘The full horrific details of [Wayne Couzens’] crimes are deeply concerning and raise entirely legitimate questions. This is the most horrific of crimes, but we recognise this is part of a much bigger and troubling picture.’

The spokesman said other recent murders ‘bring into sharp focus our urgent duty to do more to protect women and girls’.   

Charity Rape Crisis warned ‘women cannot keep themselves safe’ and blasted ‘a culture that trivialises and condones rape and sexual violence’ as well as saying the justice system was ‘systematically flawed’.

And it said women who ‘do not stick to the arbitary and ineffective rulebook’ deserved to be treated with respect as victims of crime and to enjoy the same freedoms as men – such as walking in a park at night.

It pointed to rape jokes going unchallenged, the expectation that men in the workplace behave decisively, the ‘entitled’ attitude of men who expect sexual interactions, and it suggested the murders of white women are given preferential treatment in the press.

Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, wrote: ‘The visceral grief so many of us felt after the murder of Sarah Everard in March was real.

‘The horrific details that have emerged this week at the sentencing of her murderer – not even two weeks after the tragic death of Sabina Nessa – have compounded this pain and brought into sharp reality that the fear we are raised to feel, though far from healthy, is legitimate.

‘From an early age, we teach girls and women that our safety in public spaces is not something that we can or should count on, and it is our responsibility to keep ourselves safe from an ever-present threat.

‘We are spoon-fed ‘solutions’ of holding keys between our fingers and sticking to the lit side of the path.

‘We rarely stop to consider that, in telling girls and women we can prevent violence, what we are really doing is falsely telling those who experience such harm that they could or should have done something differently’.

Wayne Couzens exchanged misogynistic, racist and homophobic texts with his police colleagues who are now facing a criminal investigation, it has been claimed.

Five serving officers, three of whom work for the Metropolitan Police, and one former officer, allegedly shared horrific content with Sarah Everard’s killer on a WhatsApp group in the months before the murder.

After his arrest in March, detectives found the ‘vile’ texts on his phone which the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IOPC) said were of a ‘discriminatory and/or inappropriate nature’.

Aside from the three serving officers working for the Met, one under investigation is from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and another works for Norfolk Constabulary, according to The Times.

The former officer in the group also previously worked for the Met, whose chief Dame Cressida Dick is yet again facing calls to resign.

When Sue Fish, a former chief constable of Nottinghamshire, was asked on Times Radio if she believed the police force was institutionally misogynistic, she replied: ‘Yes, I do. And that’s not just the Metropolitan Police, that’s policing, structurally, across the country.’

The IOPC said in a statement: ‘They are being investigated for gross misconduct for allegedly sending messages of a discriminatory and/or inappropriate nature, and for allegedly failing to challenge the messages sent by the others.

‘Two of the MPS officers and the former MPS officer have also been notified that they are being criminally investigated for improper use of the public electronic communications network under Section 127 of the Communications Act.

‘Criminal or gross misconduct investigations do not necessarily mean that charges or disciplinary proceedings will follow.’

The police watchdog is investigating the conduct of a total of 15 officers and a former officer linked to the Ms Everard case.

Asked earlier whether Couzens was a ‘bad apple’ in the police or an extreme example of an institutional problem, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said: ‘I’m wrestling with that myself.’

Others under investigation by the IOPC include a Scotland Yard probationer on the cordon at the scene where her body was discovered. 

He is alleged to have sent a shocking WhatsApp message showing how a policeman could abduct and kill a woman as a joke.

Two other constables on probation are also being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct over allegations they shared the graphic and failed to challenge it. 

Another inquiry is underway separately into Police Federation members accused of breaching standards of professional behaviour by sharing information linked to the case on a secure messaging app.

The IOPC has said it will seek to conclude the investigations ‘as swiftly as possible’. 

Meanwhile, it has emerged that 771 Met officers and staff have faced sexual misconduct allegations since 2010, with at least 44 convicted of sexual offences.

Freedom of Information figures reveal that 163 were arrested and 83 were sacked without notice.

Of those arrested, 78 were charged and 44 convicted. 

At least 18 were jailed and nine were given suspended jail sentences. 

The allegations included rape, sexual harassment, sexual assault and abusing a position of power for sex.

Some 89 per cent of officers and staff members who faced an internal investigation over complaints were male. Formal action was taken in 156 cases. 

As well as the sackings, 46 people retired or resigned once the complaint against them was upheld.

Of the sexual misconduct claims, it was found that there was no case to answer or the allegation was unsubstantiated on 446 occasions.

The force is Britain’s largest, with 43,000 officers and staff. 

It has 25 per cent of the total police budget for England and Wales.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said last night: ‘We take any police-perpetrated abuse incidents extremely seriously and they are regularly scrutinised at a senior level.

‘Any allegation, disclosure or conviction of sexual harassment or abuse perpetrated by an officer or member of staff is robustly investigated.’

He stressed: ‘Tackling sexual offences is a priority for the Met – and that includes when our own officers or staff are accused of offences. 

‘The Met will not hesitate to bring forward prosecutions and disciplinary procedures where there is evidence to do so.’

Police forces across the country will have to work ‘much harder’ to win back public trust after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer, a minister has said.

Policing minister Kit Malthouse said the case had struck a ‘devastating blow to the confidence that people have in police officers’, and he warned thousands of officers will need to do more so trust can be rebuilt.

Wayne Couzens was handed a whole life sentence on Thursday for the kidnap, rape and murder of the 33-year-old marketing executive, meaning he will never be freed from jail.

The Met has vowed to make the streets safer for women and girls as it said it is investigating whether Couzens committed more crimes before killing Ms Everard.

The force said it will no longer deploy plain clothes officers on their own after the Old Bailey heard Couzens had used lockdown rules and shown his warrant card to falsely arrest Ms Everard during the abduction.

The force advised anyone who is concerned a police officer is not acting legitimately during an interaction to ask where the officer’s colleagues are; where they have come from; why they are there; and exactly why they are stopping or talking to them.

Anyone could verify the police officer by asking to hear their radio operator or asking to speak to the radio operator themselves, the force said, also suggesting suggested people who are concerned can shout out to a passer-by, run into a house, knock on a door, wave a bus down, or call 999.

It plans to send 650 new officers into busy public places and promised to ‘step up’ patrols in areas identified as ‘hotspot’ locations for violence and harassment.

Speaking on Sky News on Friday, Mr Malthouse said: ‘They recognise that this has struck a devastating blow to the confidence that people have in police officers but also in the Met Police in particular.

‘For those thousands and thousands of police officers out there who will have to work harder – much harder – to win public trust, it is a very, very difficult time.’

Mr Malthouse said there are important lessons to learn from what happened.

‘My job is effectively to help the Home Secretary hold the police to account about what went wrong, how this monster slipped through the net to become a police officer, how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ he said.

But he joined several other politicians and policing figures in rejecting mounting calls for Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to resign, adding: ‘She is a dedicated and talented and committed police officer who is driving the Metropolitan Police to ever greater standards of care and improvement and fighting crime.’

The Met is facing questions as to how Couzens was able to get a job with the force despite allegations made against him earlier in his career – prompting a wider debate over whether police vetting rules are strict enough.

Mr Malthouse told BBC Breakfast: ‘One of the lessons that we will need to learn is the allegations that were made against him – where those investigations led to, why they did not pop up on his vetting or have any impact in his employment with the Metropolitan Police.

‘That is currently under investigation.’

Jess Phillips, Labour’s shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said trust in police is ‘not going to be built back overnight’, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It is going to be built up if we see the Government and police forces starting to actually take violence against women and girls, and the complaints that women make day in, day out, seriously.’

It comes as Met chief Cressida Dick faces a clamour to resign after she admitted Sarah Everard’s murder had corroded trust in the police and brought ‘shame’ on her force.

In what was described as Scotland Yard’s ‘darkest day’, a string of MPs, including the chairman of the women and equalities select committee, said Dame Cressida should go.

They said it was clear she could not restore faith in Britain’s biggest police force after one of her officers, Wayne Couzens, was sentenced to a whole-life term for Miss Everard’s murder. 

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the force had ‘serious questions to answer’ – and refused to give the beleaguered Met Commissioner her public backing.

As it was revealed police may have had enough information to identify Couzens as a sexual deviant before he raped and killed Miss Everard, Dame Cressida gave a humbled apology on the steps of the Old Bailey.

But as she apologised on behalf of the force, the Yard chief was heckled by protesters shouting ‘resign’. 

Miss Everard’s family said the world was a ‘safer place’ after 48-year-old Couzens was sentenced to die in prison, with the judge saying his ‘warped, selfish and brutal offending’ had ‘eroded’ confidence in British policing.

The case has triggered immense public and political outrage after it emerged Couzens abused police powers to ‘arrest’ and abduct the 33-year-old marketing executive. 

Officers did not check his vehicle records, which would have revealed a link to an indecent exposure in Kent in 2015 when Couzens was reported by a male motorist for driving around naked from the waist down.

Despite this failure, Met Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave provoked astonishment when he said Couzens would still have got into the force even if vetting officers had known, because Kent Police failed to identify Couzens – then one of their own special constables – as the driver and decided it did not merit any further action.

In another missed opportunity, 72 hours before the murder, staff at a drive-through McDonald’s restaurant in Swanley told police that two female staff members had been flashed by a motorist who exposed himself on February 7 and again on February 27.

But despite being given CCTV evidence and the number plate of Couzens’ car, detectives did not link the two incidents to the killer officer.

Had he been identified as a suspected sex offender, Couzens is likely to have been suspended and had his warrant card removed.

Mr Ephgrave said he didn’t know whether Miss Everard’s murder could have been prevented if vetting checks had been carried out properly , saying: ‘If any of those things had been in a different order, would the outcome have been different? Well maybe.’

Mr Ephgrave admitted trust in the police had been seriously damaged, adding: ‘One of my daughters said to me, ‘Dad, what am I supposed to do if I get stopped (by a policeman) coming home?’ 

It is understood that Dame Cressida will be called in by the Home Secretary following next week’s Tory party conference to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, detectives from the Met Police are actively investigating if Couzens is connected to any further historic crimes.

Officers this evening appealed for any so-far unknown victims of the sexual predator to contact them if they were targeted by him.

The Met action emerged hours after criminologists told MailOnline his crime suggested ‘he had done this before’.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘As you would expect we continue to make enquiries to establish whether he has been involved in other criminal offences. As these investigations are ongoing we are unable to go into further detail although, at this time, we have not identified anything that is of the same level of seriousness as the crimes he has been sentenced for.

‘We are keen to hear from anyone who may have information about any criminality they believe Couzens was involved in.’  

The killer rapist, 48, who staged a fake arrest as a ploy to trap Ms Everard in the back of his car, was this morning sentenced to a whole life order for his barbaric crimes.

But experts say the confidence in which he carried out the abduction shows he had done it before. And the way he disposed of Miss Everard’s body by burning her remains signalled ‘experienced behaviour’. 

The killer cop was nicknamed The Rapist because of his inappropriate behaviour around women, had an obsession with ‘brutal porn’ and flashed McDonald’s workers before murdering Sarah Everard on March 3. 

But he still passed a vetting process that saw him put in charge of a gun as he stood guard at embassies in London for Met Police. 

The IOPC is also looking into Kent Police – where Couzens used to work as a volunteer – after it was accused of not investigating reports in 2015 that a man had been spotted driving down a road with no trousers on. 

Met Police admitted ‘one of a range of checks’ when Couzens applied to join the force ‘may not have been undertaken correctly’.

Couzens’ car numberplate was linked to the 2015 indecent exposure but Met Police blamed the Kent force, claiming ‘Kent Police investigated this allegation and decided to take no further action. Our review found that the record of this allegation and outcome may not have been found during the vetting checks.’

It comes as a list of eight blunders that left Couzens free to kill were revealed.