Only now are police taking responsibility for Sarah Everard's murder.

On Wednesday, March 3, 2021, British woman Sarah Everard was just trying to walk home.

She'd left a friend's apartment in London's Clapham, and called her partner as she walked the 5km towards home in the nearby suburb of Brixton. She hung up at 9:28pm.

Wayne Couzens, then an off-duty officer in London's Metropolitan Police Service, abducted, raped and murdered the 33-year-old that night. 

Everard had been approached by Couzens, who told her he had a warrant card proving he was an officer. He told her she'd broken COVID-19 lockdown rules before handcuffing her and putting her in his car. To a witness in a passing vehicle, it just looked like an arrest from an undercover officer. 

Everard's family believe she never would have got in Couzens' car if he hadn't pretended to be a plain clothes officer, using his knowledge of policing to falsely arrest her.

Now a damning inquiry into Everard's murder has been finalised — and the findings from the report are even worse than many expected.

Watch: Investigators speak about the case and its impact. Post continues below.

Couzens was sentenced to life without parole for Everard's murder and later convicted of three separate indecent exposure incidents – and pleaded guilty to a fourth left on file – that took place while he was in the police force but before the murder.

The inquiry this week identified at least five serious incidents which were not reported to police.

The 347-page findings had detailed evidence of Couzens' "preference for violent and extreme pornography and history of alleged sexual offending" dating back nearly 20 years.

There was evidence of an alleged "very serious sexual assault of a child barely into her teens" when Couzens was in his 20s, before becoming a police officer.

Overall, his crimes were "the culmination of a trajectory of sexually motivated behaviour and offending", including indecent exposure, the sexual assault on a child, sexual touching and sharing unsolicited photos of his genitals.

There were allegations Couzens possessed indecent images of children. Couzens was also "creepy" towards colleagues long before Everard's murder. So much so he was nicknamed "the rapist" at his place of work.

Couzens failed vetting to join Kent Police, but was allowed to work with the force as a special constable anyway. 

In 2018, he applied to the Metropolitan Police and was later issued with a gun in a flawed process that missed information about a June 2015 indecent assault allegation.

He should never have been a police officer, the inquiry noted, and opportunities were missed to stop him or properly investigate claims made against him.

Sarah Everard. Image: Supplied/Facebook.

The report also flagged the possibility of more victims of Couzens' who are yet to come forward.

The inquiry's chair Lady Elish Angiolini made 16 recommendations calling for dramatic change to police vetting procedures, culture and approaches to investigating indecent exposure.

She confirmed that red flags and opportunities to stop Couzens were missed.

"He used his position as a police officer to impress or intimidate people he met. Couzens should never have been a police officer, but opportunities to deny him that privilege were missed," Lady Angiolini said.

The Metropolitan Police have now accepted responsibility for their role in this case, as have Kent Police. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley noted the scale of reform needed, saying change "will take time and it is not yet complete".

"The majority of my Met colleagues share my determination to reform by both confronting the risk posed by predatory men in policing, and also, improving our protection of women and children across London," he said.

Chief Constable Gavin Stephens of the National Police Chiefs' Council, which represents force leaders, also said the inquiry's report was a "glowing red signal to all police officers".

"We collectively will not stop until the public, especially women and girls, get the policing they deserve and confidence in our role as protectors is rebuilt," he said, describing Everard's murder as "a watershed moment". 

Conversations about the wider police system and institutionalised inefficiencies have been high priority as of late. 

This is the case in Australia, when it comes to the case of serving police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon who allegedly murdered Luke Davies and Jesse Baird in February 2024. The inquiry into Indigenous man Kumanjayi Walker's death is also ongoing. Then there was the inquiry into 40 years of gay hate crimes and murders in NSW, the report showing there was inaction from state police. 

In reaction to the report handed down in the UK, Everard's family said warning signs were "overlooked" throughout Couzens' policing career, and more should have been done to not only protect their daughter but all women and children around him.

"As a family, the inquiry has helped us, not just because of its significant findings, but because its implementation made us feel that Sarah's life was valued and her memory honoured. Her death has not been dismissed as a tragic event to be acknowledged with sympathy and then forgotten — questions have been raised and actions taken to investigate how this tragedy happened," they said in a statement.

"It is obvious that Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer. Whilst holding a position of trust, in reality he was a serial sex offender. Warning signs were overlooked throughout his career and opportunities to confront him were missed. We believe that Sarah died because he was a police officer — she would never have got into a stranger's car."

Feature Image: Supplied/Facebook.