Latest / NO FILTER / This Terrifying Case Will Leave You Speechless _ True Crime Documentary(M4A_128K)

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This Terrifying Case Will Leave You Speechless _ True Crime Documentary(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Most people have made that walk at some point. It's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a familiar route, a quiet street, just the short trip
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: between a friend's place and home. Sometimes you call someone
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: while you're walking. Sometimes you put on music. Other times
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: you just let your mind wander, thinking about the next
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: day or what you still have to do. It's the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: kind of routine most people don't think twice about, even
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: in a big city, even late at night, on a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: road you already know well. In early twenty twenty one,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: daily life across the United Kingdom was still heavily shaped
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: by COVID nineteen lockdown restrictions. Offices were closed, restaurants operated
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: with limits or sat mostly empty. Areas that would normally
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: be busy late into the evening were much quieter than usual,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: But people still had to get around. They walked to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: nearby by shops, They visited friends within the rules that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: were in place at the time. They moved through neighborhoods
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: they'd known for years. For many people in London, those
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: small routines helped bring a little stability to a strange
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and uncertain period. Then, on the night of March third,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, one of those ordinary routines became the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: starting point of a case that would soon draw attention
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: across the country. That night, Sarah Everard, a thirty three
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: year old marketing executive, left a friend's home in Clapham,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: South London. It hadn't been anything unusual, just an evening
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: catching up. At around nine pm, she said goodbye and
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: started the walk back to her flat in Brixton Hill,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a route that normally took about forty five to fifty minutes.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The streets along the South Circular Road were fairly well lit.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Traffic continued to move along the A two o five.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Apartment buildings, small shops and residential blocks lined the road
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: along the way. Nothing about the walk seemed out of
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the ordinary. Later CCTV cameras showed Sarah walking along the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: pavement wearing a green rain jacket and a white beanie.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: She looked relaxed, moving at a normal pace. At one
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: point during the walk, she called her boyfriend. They spoke
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: briefly while she made her way home. The conversation didn't
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: raise any concerns. There was nothing unusual about it, nothing
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to suggest it would be the last time they would speak.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: About half an hour after leaving the house, a door
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: bell camera captured footage of Sarah walking alone along pointers
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: road heading toward Tulse Hill. The time stamp showed it
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: was around nine thirty p m. In the video, she
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: appears calm, just another person heading home for the night.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Investigators would later confirm that this footage was the last
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: verified sighting of Sarah Everard, and after that moment she disappeared.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: When Sarah didn't arrive home, people close to her started
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to worry. Friends and family quickly realized something wasn't right.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Those who knew her said it was completely unlike her
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to lose contact or go quiet without telling someone. It
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: didn't take long before the Metropolitan Police Service opened a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: missing person investigation. Officers began working through the area around Clapham.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: They collected CCTV footage, They went door to door speaking
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: with residents. They asked people nearby to check their dash
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: cams and doorbell cameras. Within a few days, the search
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: spread across larger parts of South London. Detectives carefully retraced
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the route Sarah was believed to have taken that night,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: following the exact path she should have walked home, but
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: they ran into a serious problem. The timeline simply stopped
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: right there on pointers road. There were no further confirmed sightings,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: no clear witnesses who had seen what happened next, no
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: obvious explanation for where she had gone. At that point,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: there were more questions than answers. All anyone knew was
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: this a woman had left a friend's house in South
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: London and never arrived home. The investigation would eventually reveal
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: what happened that night, but before the news coverage, before
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the search operation, and before her name was being discussed
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: across the country, there was Sarah Everard. And to understand
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: why her disappearance affected so many people, it helps to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: step back for a moment and look at who she
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: was before all of this, before the headlines, before the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: nationwide search, before the case became known around the world.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Sarah Evard was simply someone building a life in London.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: She was born in nineteen eighty seven and grew up
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: in Surrey, just outside the city. Her parents, Jeremy Everard
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and Susan Everard, raised Sarah and her siblings in what
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: relatives later described as a close and supportive family. From
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: a young age. Sarah had a reputation for being thoughtful
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and quietly determined. She was curious about the world. She
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: liked learning, and people who knew her often said she
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: paid a time attention to small details, whether that was
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: in her work or in her relationships with others. After
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: finishing school, she went on to study geography at Durham University,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: one of the United Kingdom's well known universities. Friends who
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: studied with her later described someone who was dependable, kind
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and easy to talk to. University was also where Sarah
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: made many of the friendships that stayed with her long
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: after graduation. After finishing her degree, she moved to London.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Like a lot of young professionals in the city, she
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: was juggling work and life, building a career while making
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: a home among friends and colleagues. She worked at a
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: few marketing and pr agencies. Colleagues remembered her as organized, reliable,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: and professional. She cared about doing her job well and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: took pride in the work she produced. But outside the office,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Sarah's life was fairly straightforward. She liked running, She enjoyed
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: spending time with friends, and like many people in London,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: she often met friends for casual dinners, walks, or visits
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: around the neighborhoods. She was getting to know. By twenty
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: twenty one, she was living in Brixton Hill, South London,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a lively area known for its restaurants, music venues and
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: diverse community. She was settling in, familiarizing herself with the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: streets near her flat, getting comfortable in her new surroundings.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Her life at the time looked steady and promising, a
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: supportive family close friends nearby. Sarah was also in a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: relationship with her boyfriend Josh Loath, who she had been
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: seeing for some time. His family knew her well and
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the relationship was an important part of her life. To
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: those who knew her, Sarah's life seemed balanced and stable.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: She was known for her kindness, the way she remembered
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: details about people's lives, stayed in touch, and made time
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: for friends even when work got busy. In many ways,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: her life was familiar to anyone living in a big city,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: building a career, maintaining real life relationships, planning for the future.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Nothing about it suggested that she would soon become the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: center of one of the most widely reported criminal cases
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: in recent British history. But while Sarah was living her
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: life in London, another life, one that would tragically intersect
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: with hers was unfolding elsewhere on the evening of March third,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. There was nothing about the night that
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: seemed unusual. Across London. People were still under COVID nineteen
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: lockdown restrictions. Restaurants were closed, gatherings were limited. Most social
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: visits were quiet, spent inside with a few friends. That night,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Sarah Everard was visiting a friend in Clapham, a residential
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: neighborhood in South London. It was a simple visit, just
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: two friends catching up. They spent the evening talking, the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: kind of ordinary conversation people were having during those strange
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: lockdown months. Around nine pm, Sarah left to walk back
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to her flat in Brixton Hill. The route was familiar,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: about two point five miles, a path many Londoners take
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: every day through well lit streets around Clapham before continuing
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: toward Brixton. She was dressed in a green rain jacket,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: white and dark spotted trousers and green trainers. Bright green
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: ear muffs topped her outfit, a small detail that later
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: made her easier to identify in CCTV footage. As she walked,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Sarah called her boyfriend Josh Loath. The call lasted around
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. It was a normal conversation. Nothing in her
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: tone suggested she felt unsafe. When the call ended, she
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: continued along the A two o five South Circular Road,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a main route cutting through South London. Shortly after nine
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: thirty pm, a door bell camera captured her walking along
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: pointers road. The footage shows her moving at a steady pace,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: just another person heading home after visiting a friend. That
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: short clip would later become the last confirmed sighting of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Sarah alive. No other cameras picked her up. No one
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: reported seeing her continue toward Brixton. When she didn't arrive
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: home that night, concerns started to grow. Her boyfriend tried
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: contacting her, no response. By the next day, friends and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: family realized something was wrong. They called the police, and
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: soon the Metropolitan Police Service launched a missing person investigation.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Officers went door to door. They reviewed hours of CCTV
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: from homes, shops, and traffic cameras. Residents were asked to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: check dash cams, doorbell cameras and other security systems. Search
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: teams combed parks and nearby streets. But the timeline investigators
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: were piecing together had a troubling gap. Sarah was clearly
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: visible on pointers road, and then nothing, no signs of
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a struggle, no witnesses coming forward. As detectives continued reviewing
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: CCTV from the area, they began noticing small details that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: had at first seemed unimportant, details that would prove critical
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to understanding what happened that night. A white car appeared
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: on footage near the spot where Sarah was last seen.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: At first, it seemed like just another car passing through
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: the area, but as investigators examined the footage more closely,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the car kept showing up around the same time and
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: in places connected to Sarah's final moments. Eventually, detectives traced
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the vehicle to a man He lived miles away in Kent.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: On paper, he held a position of public trust. His
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: name was Wayne Cousin's. He was born on December twentieth,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, in Dover, Kent, England, making him forty
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: eight at the time. After finishing school, he joined his
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: family's business, working there for more than twenty years. Later,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: he decided to pursue a career in law enforcement. Over time,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Cousins worked in several policing roles before joining the Metropolitan
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Police Service. He served with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: specialized force responsible for protecting nuclear facilities across the UK.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: By twenty twenty one, he was assigned to the Parliamentary
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and Diplomat Protection Command, a unit responsible for guarding sensitive locations,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: including government buildings and diplomatic sites. On the surface, his
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: career placed him in a position of authority and trust.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Police officers have powers most people don't, the ability to
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: detain individuals, conduct searches and enforce the law. Those powers
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: rely on one thing above all trust trust that officers
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: will use them responsibly. But investigators would later uncover that
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: cousins use that authority in a completely different way. On
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the night Sarah Everard disappeared, he carried items that made
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: him appear as a legitimate officer, including police ID and handcuffs.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: He used those tools to stage what looked like a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: lawful arrest. It was a deception that gave him control
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: over the situation and allowed him to remove Sarah from
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the street without anyone realizing what was happening. When the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: truth came out, the shock across the UK was immense.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: When Sarah was reported missing, the investigation began, like many
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: others do. Detectives started with her last confirmed sighting, they
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: retraced her route. They reviewed every camera along the streets
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: she had walked. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service started
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: collecting video from doorbell cameras, home security systems and traffic
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: cameras across South London. Residents in Clapham and nearby neighborhoods
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: were asked to check their footage and hand it over
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: if it showed anything unusual. As the hours of footage
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: piled up, detectives noticed something that caught their attention. Several
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: cameras had picked up a white car moving through the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: same area where Sarah had last been seen. At first,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it didn't seem remarkable. London streets are busy and cars
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: pass constantly, but this one kept showing up, a white
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Vauxhall Astra. It appeared near Poynterers Road around the same
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: time Sarah had walked past the doorbell camera that captured
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: her last confirmed image. That detail made investigators sit up
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and take notice. They started tracing the car across multiple
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: cameras in the area. It showed up on nearby streets
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and then it vanished. Luckily, the license plate had been captured.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Police ran the registration and discovered it was registered to
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a man named Wayne Cousins. At first, that name wouldn't
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: have meant anything to the public, but when detectives checked
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: his records, one detail immediately stood out. Cousins wasn't just
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: a private citizen. He was a serving police officer. He
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: worked with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, a unit
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: responsible for guarding embassies and key government sites in London.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: That discovery changed the investigation. Overnight, detectives were no longer
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: just looking for a missing person. They were now investigating
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the possibility that a police officer had been at the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: last known location of a woman who had vanished. They
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: moved quickly, phone data, vehicle tracking, additional surveillance foot from
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: roads leading out of London. As the evidence mounted, it
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: became clear that Cousins had driven far beyond South London
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: that night. Records showed his car heading toward Kent, a
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: county southeast of the city. The distance raised serious questions
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: why had he driven there in the middle of the night,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: what had happened after Sarah was last seen on pointers road.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Over the next few days, the pieces slowly began to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: fall into place. On March ninth, twenty twenty one, police
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: moved in. Officers arrested Wayne Cousen's at a property in Deal.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: At the same time, investigators secured several locations connected to him.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Search teams spread out across Woodland and farmland in Kent.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: What they were looking for was Sarah Everard. On the
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: evening of March third, Sarah had been walking along Pointers
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Road heading toward Brixton. Somewhere along that route, Cousin stopped
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: his car near her. He got out, showed her a
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: police ID and told her she was under arrest for
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: breach COVID nineteen lockdown rules. At that time, strict pandemic
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: restrictions were still in place across the UK, and police
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: did have legal authority to question people about gatherings and movement.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Moments later, a driver passing by noticed something that would
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: become an important piece of the investigation. From a distance,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: they saw a woman standing next to a car with
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: a man. Her hands appeared to be handcuffed behind her back.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: At first, it didn't raise alarm. It looked like a
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: routine police stop, but investigators later confirmed that the woman
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: was almost certainly Sarah and the man was Wayne Cousin's.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Once Sarah was inside the vehicle, Cousins drove away from
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the area. CCTV and automatic number plate recognition cameras later
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: tracked the car leaving South London. Instead of heading toward Brixton,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the vehicle was going out of the city. The drive
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: lasted hours. During that time, Sarah had effectively disappeared from
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: public view. In the day's eating up to that night,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Cousins had rented a Vauxhall Astra, bought items connected to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the attack, and planned a long journey out of London.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: The evidence made it clear this wasn't a spur of
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the moment act. It was calculated. By the time investigators
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: were piecing together what had happened, Sarah was already gone.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: The search stretched across multiple counties. Police teams combed woodland,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: farmland and rural roads. Each new lead brought them closer
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: to understanding what had happened and closer to a devastating reality.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Because in the countryside near Ashford, search teams were about
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: to make a discovery that would confirm the worst fears
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: of Sarah's family. By March ninth, twenty twenty one, the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: investigation had already moved far beyond South London. Police were
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: now following leads across multiple locations connected to Wayne Cousins,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: his home, his work records, and places he had recently traveled.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: CCTV footage and vehicle tracking showed that Cousins had driven
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: out of London the knight Sarah Everard disappeared. That trail
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: eventually led investigators into rural Kent. It was quiet countryside fields, woodland,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: long roads with almost no traffic, the kind of place
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: where someone could vanish without being seen. Search teams focused
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: on areas near Ashford, close to land connected to Cousin's family.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service worked alongside forensic specialists.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Every patch of land was examined carefully. Then, on March tenth,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the search reached a woodland area near the small village
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of Great Chart. Hidden among the trees, officers discovered what
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: appeared to be human remains inside a large bag. The
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: discovery immediately changed the direction of the investigation. Forensic teams
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: sealed off the site. Specialists worked through the night documenting
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the scene, collecting evidence, and preparing the remains for identification.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Back in London, Sarah's family waited anxiously for news. They
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: had spent days holding on to hope hoping she might
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: have been taken somewhere safe, hoping she was still alive,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: but investigators already knew the evidence was pointing toward a
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: devastating reality. On March twelfth, twenty twenty one, police confirmed
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: what everyone feared. The remains found near Ashford had been
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: positively identified as Sarah Everard. The news spread quickly across
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the United Kingdom. What had begun as a missing person
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: case was now officially a murder investigation. For Sarah's family,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the confirmation ended days of uncertainty, but brought a deeper,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: unbearable grief. In statements released through the police, they described
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Sara as bright, kind and thoughtful, a daughter, a sister,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: a friend who brought warmth into the lives of those
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: around her. The loss rippled far beyond her family. Across London.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: People struggled to process what had happened. A young woman
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: had been walking home and she never made it. Investigators
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: were still piecing together exactly how the crime unfolded After
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Sarah was abducted. Evidence from cousin's vehicle, his phone, and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the rural sites where search teams had worked began to
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: reveal something even more disturbing. This wasn't a spontaneous act.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: It had been planned long before Sarah ever stepped onto
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: that street. After Sarah's remains were discovered, the investigation quickly
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: focused on building a case against Wayne Cousin's He had
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: already been arrested days earlier at his home and deal.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: By the time police confirmed Sarah's death, they had collected
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: a growing body of evidence linking him to the crime.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Phone records, vehicle data, surveillance footage, forensic evidence from the
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: rural locations he had traveled through that night. Each piece
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: helped detectives reconstruct what happened after the abduction. Prosecutors later
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: explained that Cousins drove Sarah from London to rural Kent,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: a journey of more than an hour. When first questioned
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Cousin's tri to offer a false story, he claimed the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: crime had been carried out by an Eastern European gang
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: who had threatened his family. Investigators quickly dismissed the claim
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: there was no evidence to support it. Instead, every detail
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: pointed directly back to him. Surveillance cameras had tracked his car,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: phone records placed him along the route. Forensic searches tied
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: him to the rural locations investigators were examining. As the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: evidence piled up, Kusins was formally charged with kidnap, rape
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and murder. The case was set to go before the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, one
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: of the UK's most historic criminal courts, But before a
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: full trial could take place, something unexpected happened. In June
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Kuzens pleaded guilty to the kidnap and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: rape of Sarah Everard. Three months later, in September, he
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: also pleaded guilty to her murder. There would be no
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: lengthy courtroom trial. The facts of the case were already clear.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Sentencing hearing, however, revealed the full extent of what had happened.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Prosecutors described how Kuzens had planned the abduction in advance.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: He had rented a car, bought items connected to the attack,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: and driven to South London that night with the intention
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of targeting a woman walking alone. The court heard that
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Cousins had used his police ID to falsely arrest Sarah,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: taking advantage of the authority of the Metropolitan Police Service.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: It was a betrayal of public trust that shook the country.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: On September thirtieth, twenty twenty one the judge handed down
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the sentence. Wayne Couzin's was given a whole life order
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: under UK law that means he will never be released.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: It's one of the most severe penalties in the British
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: justice system. Even as the legal case came to a close,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the impact of Sarah's death continued to be felt across
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the country. Across London, thousands gathered at vigils to remember her.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: People spoke about fear, safety and the realities women face
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: simply walking home at night. One of the largest gatherings
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: took place on Clapham Common, not far from where Sarah
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: was last seen. People left flowers, candles, and handwritten messages.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: They stood together quietly in memory and in solidarity. For
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Sarah's family, the grief was deeply personal. In statements read
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: in court, they described her as thoughtful, compassionate and quietly strong.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: A daughter who loved spending time with her family, a
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: sister who stayed close to those she cared about, A
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: friend whose kindness made everyone feel welcome. Sarah Evard was
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: thirty three years old when her life was taken. Her
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: death sparked a national conversation about safety, policing and violence
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: against women. In the UK, but beyond the headlines and debates,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: this case is ultimately about one person, a woman who
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: was simply walking home after visiting a friend, a normal evening,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: a familiar route, a short walk through the streets of London,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and a life that should have continued far beyond that night. Today,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Sarah Everard's name is remembered not just as part of
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: a tragic case, but as a reminder of the importance
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of justice, accountability, and the value of every life lost
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: too soon. Thank you for watching Murder Ledger. We explore
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: real cases, unanswered questions, and the details that refuse to fade.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: If these stories matter to you, consider subscribing and sharing
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: your thoughts in the comments.