What new information will be in the Sarah Everard documentary?

The third anniversary of the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard has just passed. 

The 33-year-old marketing executive was walking home on the evening of 3 March 2021, when she was kidnapped by a then-serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens. 

On 9 March, Couzens was arrested. A day later Everard’s body was found. 

A new documentary about Sarah’s murder will be aired on the BBC tonight. 

The documentary examines the events surrounding her murder. 

When can I watch the Sarah Everard documentary? 

Sarah Everard: The Search For Justice will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6 am on Tuesday and will be broadcast on BBC One at 9 pm that evening.

The documentary says her murder was a “watershed moment for the nation” as “it brought to the fore the devastating issue of male predators within the country’s police forces and highlighted the extent of violence against women and girls in British society”.

The documentary looks at the Met’s investigation and includes interviews with senior cips and the prosecuting barrister in the case.

Last week, an inquiry said Couzens, a “predatory sex offender and murderer”, should never have been a police officer and that opportunities to stop him were repeatedly missed and ignored.

What can we expect from the documentary? 

The detective who led the investigation into Everard’s murder tells of the moment she learned the prime suspect was a serving police officer. 

Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin revealed that police discovered Couzens was suspected of an indecent exposure offence days earlier in Kent before they found out he was a serving officer in the Metropolitan Police.

Goodwin said they discovered this after Everard and Couzens were spotted on CCTV footage next to a car, which led to his identification.

Goodwin said: “At that time, Wayne Couzens was a name that meant nothing to any of us. So immediately we start researching the name, also the phone number and the address that had been given when he’d hired the car.”

When it emerged Couzens was suspected of indecent exposure, Goodwin said it “suddenly changed everything, because whilst I might have hoped that Sarah had got into the car with someone she knew, suddenly it was clear to me that she’d got into the car of an alleged sex offender”.

She sent a team to Couzens’ house in Kent to question him and, while officers were en route, a detective ran into her office, shut the door, and told her “you need to hear this”.

A researcher on the phone then revealed that Couzens was a serving Met officer.

Goodwin said: “I knew that I had to tell my boss and I can just remember the shock of having to just sit on the floor of the office and say to her, ‘You’re not going to believe this, that he’s a police officer’.

“And then the same questions went through her head as went through my head, ‘Are you sure?’.”

Couzens went grey – ‘the colour just ran out of his face’

When police were en route to Couzen’s house, they found out he was a serving police officer. Former Metropolitan Police detective Nick Harvey was the first to question Couzens. 

“The gravity of the whole situation then became incredibly clear,” he told the documentary. “You know, the moment I told the team, it just went silent.”

Harvey knocked on Couzens’ door and said that when he showed his warrant card “he just went grey”.

He said of Couzens: “Just… all the colour just ran out of his face.”

Family release new photos of Sarah Everard 

New photos of Sarah have been released by her family to the BBC. 

One image shows her at her graduation in 2008, in another, she is seen relaxing close to where she lived in Brixton Hill, south London. 

A third image shows Sarah smiling, holding a glass of wine and a fourth depicts her looking into the distance whilst sitting at a table covered in flowers. 

Victims of David Carrick come forward 

The documentary reveals how coverage of Sarah Everard’s murder prompted victims to come forward to report other police officers for cases of sexual assault, rape and other misconduct.

In the days after Couzens’ sentencing, a victim of David Carrick, an officer serving in the Metropolitan Police at the time, came forward.

“Sophie” spoke in the documentary and said hearing the victim impact statement of Everard’s mother in court drove her to speak out.

“I think that it was when she was saying about Wayne Couzens, the abuse of power that he used. Her words just echoed. I just knew that I had to report him,” Sophie said.

Carrick later pleaded guilty to 85 serious offences, including dozens of rapes during a 17-year campaign of attacks against 12 women. He was ordered to serve at least 30 years and is one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders.