Wayne Couzens ‘used police ID and handcuffs to kidnap Sarah Everard’

Sentencing hearing told that Met officer hunted for a female to rape', as footage shows him staging a false arrest of his victim

Wayne Couzens used his police warrant card and handcuffs to lure Sarah Everard off the street before strangling her with his police belt and burning her body, depriving her family of the chance to say a final goodbye, a court has heard.

Video footage released on Wednesday showed Couzens, then a serving Metropolitan police officer, staging a false arrest of Everard as she returned from a friend's house in south London in March during a period of coronavirus lockdown measures.