A girl arrested at a vigil for murdered Sarah Everard has advised Sky News the Metropolitan Police hasn’t modified since and “there’s other Wayne Couzens in the Met right now”.
Patsy Stevenson, a campaigner and equal rights activist, was talking after an inquiry mentioned on Thursday that Wayne Couzens, the serving Met officer who murdered Ms Everard in 2021, ought to by no means have been allowed to hitch the drive.
Major pink flags about Couzens had been “repeatedly ignored” by police vetting and investigations, the report said, together with his style for “extreme and violent pornography” and proof he allegedly dedicated a “very serious sexual assault against a child” earlier than his policing profession even started.
Ms Stevenson advised The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee, she was “exhausted” of listening to phrases like ‘pressing’, ‘shocked’ and ‘sorry’ in relation to police reform.
She mentioned: “Three years in the past we had this kind of promise of we’ll vet them appropriately, we’ll do that, with going to do this. And it is nonetheless not occurred in that point.
“We’ve had David Carrick, we’ve had Cliff Mitchell. We’ve had so many others. You know, you type in ‘Met Police rapists’ on Google, there’s just so many of them, which is ridiculous and abhorrent.”
Both Carrick and Mitchell are former Met officers and convicted intercourse offenders, each discovered responsible of a number of rapes.
Ms Stevenson mentioned officers had advised her, in the event that they suspected a colleague of getting the fallacious perspective to girls, they would not say something about it for worry of getting them in hassle.
She mentioned: “You know that there is police that might say these issues, who view girls a sure manner, and you continue to do not say something as a result of that is what it is about.
“It’s not just whether they make a comment or whether they do something. It’s a mindset right now, 100%. There’s other Wayne Cousins in the Met right now.
“All policing systems still have this culture of misogyny, racism, homophobia and there’s not enough space for people to speak up about it when they are in that system. And protection for those people who do speak up.
“But additionally, we’re not coping with the precise tradition. If you are objectifying girls, that is misogyny. If you may have these ideas in your head already, you are already on that path.
“These people that are murdering and raping women aren’t some horror movie character hiding down an alleyway. Wayne Couzens had a family… you may think you can trust them, but they can be very manipulative. You don’t know who these people are.”
The former firearms officer won’t ever be launched from jail after he used his police-issued warrant card to stage a faux arrest and snatch Sarah Everard in Clapham, south London, on 3 March 2021.
He drove the 33-year-old advertising and marketing government to a secluded rural space close to Dover in Kent, raped and strangled her along with his police-issue belt earlier than burning her physique in a fridge and dumping her stays in a pond.
Read extra:
How Sarah Everard’s killer was caught
Timeline: Wayne Couzen’s behaviour and crimes
‘Shameful’ report exposes wider points
Asked if girls are secure with police, Ms Stevenson’s reply was unequivocal.
She mentioned: “I personally believe that women shouldn’t trust the police. I wish we could. We hear the rhetoric of, you know, well, ‘who else are you going to go to’? Nobody. There isn’t anyone right now. And that’s a scary thought. There is nobody that women and girls trust when things go bad.”
Ms Stevenson mentioned she discovered it arduous to debate the second of her arrest.
Pictures of her being pinned down by officers on the occasion in March 2021, extensively seen on the time, “still spark emotions in me. I still have nightmares about what happened to me.
“I do know that rising up on this world, they [women] cannot belief police, they can not stroll down the highway with out worry. It appears like we’re a second-class citizen in the mean time.”
Source: information.sky.com”