Let’s learn from the Sarah Everard case, but don’t scapegoat Dame Cressida 

Deranged, depraved, diabolical: there are no words strong enough to describe the crimes of Wayne Couzens, who was sentenced to a whole life tariff yesterday after pleading guilty to the rape

and murder of Sarah Everard. The dignified bearing of her family in court contrasted with the killer’s combination of self-pity and evasion of culpability. The sentence was the most severe

possible but the judge, Lord Justice Fulford, was right to impose it, because Couzens was a serving police officer who had abused his powers of arrest and perverted justice for his own

unspeakable purposes.

The case has done serious, perhaps irreparable damage to the trust between the police and the public. Women in particular have every right to feel outraged at the subculture of extreme

sexism in the Metropolitan Police and other forces that has emerged from the investigation. Five serving officers, including three from the Met, are under criminal investigation for sharing

misogynistic, racist and homophobic material with Couzens on a private WhatsApp group.

One former chief constable of Nottinghamshire, Sue Fish, has even spoken of “institutional misogyny”, echoing the 1999 Macpherson Report’s finding of “institutional racism” revealed by the

Stephen Lawrence case. She added that the problem was not limited to the Met, but applied to “policing, structurally, across the country”.

The trial exposed a catalogue of policing errors, from the failure to spot the danger posed by Couzens when he was vetted to turning a blind eye to a series of sexual offences he committed

before the murder. Officers who had served with him nicknamed Couzens “the rapist” and some appear to have shared his execrable sense of humour, which included jokes about violence against

women. The fact that even after the murder, inappropriate details about the victim were leaked to the press is further evidence of a callous attitude towards women.

There is even a suggestion of a cover-up: Sir Tom Winsor, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, has identified a “culture of colleague protection” and the Independent Office for

Police Conduct is carrying out an inquiry into how Couzens was permitted to hide in plain sight. The case is in some ways reminiscent of the way in which Jimmy Savile was enabled to sexually

abuse hundreds of people over a long career, despite widespread knowledge of his habits among those who worked with him. Just as the BBC was forced to carry out a shakeup after Savile’s

death in order to restore public confidence, so police now face a similar challenge.

The conviction of Couzens has inevitably led to calls for the resignation of Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Commissioner. Harriet Harman, the Labour Party’s leading campaigner for women’s

rights, appealed to Dame Cressida to step aside to allow the necessary reforms to take place. 

Ms Harman is of course correct to say that women should not fear the police and that the trust of many will have been “shattered” by the fate of Sarah Everard. But is it the right response

to sack the most senior female police officer in the country, the first woman ever to be Met Commissioner? Nobody who knows Dame Cressida is likely to accuse her of being soft on

misogynistic officers under her command. Indeed, some have grumbled about too much political correctness in the force. That criticism will be more muted now, but the answer to any form of

institutional prejudice is to start at the bottom, not the top. 

Couzens was able to remain below the radar, not because of a lax attitude to his vile proclivities at senior levels, but because he was able to consort with other low-level officers who

condoned them. He was ingenious at evading detection and cultivated an innocuous image as a “family man”. Even highly experienced colleagues did not suspect him or, if they did, played down

their suspicions or kept them from their superiors. How and why this happened should be the focus of any investigation. 

Vetting procedures and police training have already become much more thorough. The chances of another Couzens slipping through these filters are almost infinitesimal. Nevertheless, there is

logic in the suggestion that members of the public under arrest should be entitled to check an officer’s credentials with the command centre, rather than relying solely on the warrant card.

The argument that plain clothes officers should no longer patrol alone also has merit, though there must be some flexibility. 

Yet there is no case for making the woman in charge the scapegoat. The Commissioner sat through the trial of Couzens, determined to learn its lessons first-hand. If Dame Cressida, having

examined her conscience, were to decide to go, that would be her choice. But Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, should resist the temptation to seize this opportunity to blame an able public

servant with whom she has had an abrasive relationship. Any replacement for Dame Cressida would take time to acquire her depth of knowledge, built up over decades in the Met. Her contract

was recently renewed for two years and she should be given a chance to put her house in order. 

Policing has become more problematic and public expectations are much higher than in the past, for all kinds of reasons. The broadly defined emergency powers extended during the pandemic may

have confused witnesses who saw Couzens handcuffing Sarah Everard, and perhaps even the willingness of the victim herself to cooperate. There is a case for a more wide-ranging inquiry than

the one now under way into those who worked alongside him. A Royal Commission into policing would be seen as too slow and cumbersome, but for some problems there are no quick fixes. Ever

since Peel created the modern constabulary, the police have prided themselves on being the public in uniform. Unfortunately, that means that officers are often no better than the rest of us

and, on extremely rare occasions, very much worse.

 A vile individual whose criminality was empowered by lamentable mistakes, such as happened in this case, should not give those who are anyway hostile to the police the right to condemn the

vast majority of decent officers. The evil that extinguished a bright young woman’s life will not be defeated by self-righteousness or scapegoating, but by greater vigilance. 

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