A Metropolitan Police officer accused of the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard has appeared in court.
Pc Wayne Couzens, 48, is accused of snatching the 33-year-old marketing executive as she walked home from a friend’s flat in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3.
On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police officer made his first appearance at the Old Bailey by video link from Belmarsh top security jail in south London.
Wearing a red sweatshirt and grey jogging bottoms, the defendant appeared to have a wound on his forehead.
He spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.
Members of Ms Everard’s family joined the hearing in court 10 of the Central Criminal Court by video link, according to court officials.
Sarah Everard (Family/PA)
Prosecutor Tom Little QC said the circumstances of the case had led to a “very significant and wide-ranging investigation”.
He told the court the case had attracted an “almost unprecedented media and public attention”.
Judge Mark Lucraft QC set a provisional Old Bailey trial for October 25 with a plea hearing on July 9.
Couzens, who sat with his head bowed throughout the hearing, was remanded into custody.
Ms Everard was reported missing by her boyfriend on March 4.
Her body was found hidden in an area of woodland in Ashford, Kent, on March 10.
She was discovered inside a large builder’s bag and was formally identified through her dental records.
A post-mortem examination has taken place but no cause of death has yet been given.
Couzens, who worked on the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command unit, had finished a shift earlier on the morning of March 3 and was not on duty at the time of Ms Everard’s disappearance.
The officer, from Deal in Kent, was charged with kidnap and murder on Friday and appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court the following day.
Ms Everard’s death has sparked vigils across the country in her memory and demands for action to tackle violence against women.
Images of women being manhandled by police officers at a vigil on Clapham Common on Saturday night has led to shock and widespread condemnation.
Previously, Ms Everard’s last known movements have been aired in court.
She had visited a friend in the Clapham Junction area on March 3 and left at around 9pm to make the two-and-a-half-mile journey home.
She called her boyfriend for around 14 minutes and there has been no activity on her mobile phone since.
Ms Everard was captured alone on CCTV at 9.15pm and again at 9.28pm, and was later caught on the camera of a marked police car at 9.32pm.
At around 9.35pm, a bus camera captured two figures on Poynders Road and a white Vauxhall Astra with its hazard lights flashing.
Another bus camera captured the same car with both front doors open.
The registration of the vehicle, later confirmed to be a car hired in Dover, Kent, was caught and tracked by police as it left London towards Kent.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here