Ex-Met officer ‘bombarded with hate messages’ over botched Wayne Couzens cases

Samantha Lee attended a complaint about Wayne Couzens hours before Sarah Everard’s murder (Pictures: PA)

A former police officer who missed a chance to arrest Wayne Couzens before he murdered Sarah Everard says she now gets ‘hundreds of hate messages’.

Samantha Lee, 29,was found to have failed to make ‘the correct investigative inquiries’ when called about Couzens, 50, exposing himself to two women hours before he kidnapped, raped and killed Sarah.

She claims she is now being bombarded with hate messages from people who ‘blame her completely’ for the ‘letting’ the horrific murder happen.

Some of the texts she has received tell her she should have been the one attacked the way Sarah was, Ms Lee added.

She told BBC Newsnight: ‘I think I’m seen as this horrendous, awful person that has let an absolutely heinous crime take place.

‘And I’m being looked at as if I’m just as guilty as what Couzens is.

‘But literally, there was nothing that I could have done that would have changed the outcome.

‘I don’t want any sympathy at all. All I want is people just to understand that there is nothing that I could have done. It’s been a case of let’s go in at the bottom rather than going up higher at the top.

Ms Lee outside Palestra House in Southwark, south London, where she faced a disciplinary panel (Picture: PA)

‘The only person that should be blamed for that awful, awful, horrendous crime should be Wayne Couzens.’

Ms Lee responded to complaints about Couzens at a McDonalds branch in Swanley, Kent, on March 3, 2021 – the same day Couzens murdered 33-year-old Sarah.

Couzens had pulled his trousers down and exposed his penis in front of two female staff members at the drive-thru on February 14 and 17 2021.

Ms Lee said she believed the restaurant’s CCTV was deleted automatically, so there would be no footage of Couzens or the offence.

But manager Sam Taylor said that he had shown Ms Lee CCTV footage and told her it could be downloaded on to a USB stick. He also said Couzens’ registration plate could be seen in clips of the second incident.

The Met previously claimed Ms Lee found evidence of Couzens’ car and bank card being used at the time of the flashing attacks, and that she noted that he should be arrested.

Wayne Couzens, 50, is currently serving life in prison for attacked Sarah Everard (Picture: SWNS)

Sarah Everard was kidnapped while she was walking home through Clapham, south London, on March 3 2021 (Picture: PA)

But she then ‘did not bother’ to collect CCTV or carry out a computer check which would have strongly backed suspicions that it was indeed him behind the wheel.

Lawyers for the force said Ms Lee’s ‘lamentably poor’ investigation was ‘rushed’ because it was her last job of the day and she was keen to ‘get away quickly’.

She later resigned after being suspended for allegedly selling racy pictures online as ‘Officer Naughty’, but ended up being found guilty of gross misconduct and banned from serving in any police force ever again.

After the final hearing at the beginning of this week, Ms Lee said she had been made a ‘scapegoat’ and feels she has been ‘thrown under the bus’.

She added: ‘I am a young female PC and I am the only person who has faced any disciplinary action in relation to this.

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‘There is only one person who is responsible for everything that happened and that is Wayne Couzens. I have never lied.’

In March, Couzens was handed a 19-month sentence after admitting three counts of indecent exposure, including flashing at the McDonalds restaurant on February 14 and 27 2021.

He was already serving a whole life term for kidnapping Ms Everard as she walked home through Clapham, south London, on March 3 2021 and then raping and murdering her.

The third indecent exposure incident related to when Couzens exposed himself to a female cyclist on a Kent country lane in November 2020.

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The ex-officer says some of the messages she receives tell her she should have been attacked the way Sarah Everard was.