POLICE colleagues thought Wayne Couzens was a "family man" and noticed nothing unusual about his behaviour. 

They didn't know that during the massive search for Sarah Everard following her disappearance, he had taken his family for a visit to the wood where he had burnt her body and allowed his children to play close to the pond where he had dumped her. 

Nor did they know  about his profile on a dating website and that he had  been in contact with an escort girl, the Old Bailey has heard.

He also had debts of £29,000 and was having a dispute with the Met police about his pay.

Tom Little QC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey that  two days before his arrest - Couzens took his wife and children on a family trip to Hoads Wood.
He withdrew cash at the same Dover service station he had visited shortly after the rape and murder of his victim.
Mr Little said: "It follows that the defendant took his family on a family trip to the very woods where earlier he had left Sarah Everard's body, then returned to burn it and then returned again to move it to hide it."

During the trip, Couzens let his children play close to the pond where her body lay. 

Mr Little  told the Old Bailey Couzens' profile on dating website match.com was posted on December 2 last year, using his middle name "Antony", giving a false date of birth, and claiming that he was separated, had no children and lived in Canterbury.

In reality he had been married for years and had two children.

He was also in contact with an escort with the username "escourtbabygirl", the court heard.

Shortly before he kidnapped Sarah Everard, he told two members of the public who saw him in a computer hardware store wearing his police belt when off duty that he was into "kinky" stuff.

He claimed to be an undercover police officer.

He actually worked for the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command as an authorised firearms officer at diplomatic premises around central London and had just finished a 12-hour overnight shift at the American Embassy.

He had joined the Command two years earlier  after transferring to the Met Police from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

He had previously been part of Kent Special Constabulary and had also worked at his father's garage in Dover.

Couzens had spent some of his shift at the American Embassy talking about leaving the Met over the pay dispute and said he might go off sick with stress.

 

 

The Met Police sacked Couzens after he pleaded guilty to murder, rape and kidnap this summer.