Killer PC ‘lied he buried dad near where Sarah Everard’s body was found’
He made the claim despite his father being alive, according to a new report.
Killer PC Wayne Couzens claimed he buried his father near where Sarah Everard’s body was discovered when he was still alive at home, according to a new report.
Couzens, 48, kidnapped Ms Everard in a hire car as she walked home alone from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3.
The sexual predator, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift that morning, went on to rape and strangle the 33-year-old marketing executive.
Couzens pleaded guilty to the murder on Friday.
Ms Everard’s body was found in a woodland stream in Ashford, Kent, just metres from land owned by Couzens, a week after her disappearance.
Kieron Shepherd, who was camping with friends nearby, told the Sun newspaper he had seen Couzens ‘hacking away at something with a large axe’ three days after Ms Everard had gone missing.
He said Couzens later told him he had buried his dad, Ray.
Shepherd added: ‘We assumed he must have been talking about his father’s ashes. But he replied: “No, I actually buried him up there.”’
He continued: ‘It gives me the creeps to think he was probably going back and forth to the site where he took Sarah.’
Police launched an urgent inquiry after Ms Everard was reported missing by her boyfriend.
Couzens, a firearms-trained parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, wiped his phone just minutes before he was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, on March 9.
On Friday, five members of Ms Everard’s family were in court as he pleaded guilty to her murder when he appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from Belmarsh high-security jail.
Last month, Couzens pleaded guilty to Ms Everard’s kidnap and rape.
Prosecutor Tom Little QC told the court: ‘Before the defendant kidnapped Sarah Everard on the South Circular on March 3 this year, he had not previously met her, he did not know her and had no direct or indirect contact with her.
‘They were total strangers to each other.’
The judge, Lord Justice Fulford, set a two-day sentencing hearing from September 29.
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