Wayne Couzens has stopped eating after being ‘plunged into a depression‘ after he admitted the murder of a 33-year-old woman.
The former police officer, 48, who is serving in top security Belmarsh jail for the murder, rape and kidnap of Sarah Everard, is barely touching his food.
Prison officers are reportedly watching the convict 24 hours a day over fears he ‘might take the easy way out’.
A source told The Sun on Sunday: ‘After pleading guilty, Couzens basically didn’t touch any food for days. He’s still not eating properly, barely anything at all.
Wayne Couzens has stopped eating and is barely touching his prison food in Belmarsh jail after being ‘plunged into a depression’ after admitting the murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard
‘It’s clear the enormity of his crimes have finally begun to register. But he’s being watched like a hawk in case he tries to take the easy way out.’
Couzens, who admitted to the murder last month, could receive a life sentence when he next appears in court in September.
The Metropolitan Police officer, who has since been sacked from the force, told the hushed Old Bailey, watched by the young woman’s grieving father and sister, that he was guilty of abduction and a later sex attack on the 33-year-old.
Sarah was snatched from the street as she was walking home from a friend’s house towards Brixton on March 3.
Couzens, who admitted to the murder last month, could receive a life sentence when he next appears in court in September. Sarah (pictured) was snatched from the street as she was walking home from a friend’s house towards Brixton on March 3
The marketing assistant, who grew up in York and lived in Brixton, was seen on a doorbell camera at around 9pm walking along Poynders Road towards Tulse Hill.
CCTV caught her alone at quarter past nine and again at 9.28pm, before she was seen on the camera of a marked police car at 9.32pm.
Then, at around 9.35pm, a bus camera captured two figures on the road and a white Vauxhall Astra with its hazard lights flashing.
Footage from another bus caught the same car with both front doors open.
The vehicle was later confirmed to have been hired from Dover after police caught its registration number and traced it as it left London for Kent.
Prison officers are reportedly watching Couzens (pictured) 24 hours a day over fears he ‘might take the easy way out’
Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, went missing as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, South London
A major Metropolitan Police investigation was launched and her body was found a week later in woodland in Kent.
Couzens was a member of the elite Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection squad — a role that entitled him to carry a firearm and a Metropolitan Police warrant card.
Formed in 2015, the unit is responsible for the protection of government owned buildings and embassies as well as ministers and visiting heads of state.
Wayne Couzens seen in a court sketch during a previous hearing relating to the case
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CCTV footage of Sarah Everard captured earlier on the night she was kidnapped in March
As part of his armed duties protecting MPs and dignitaries, Couzens has provided static security for major public events attended by senior members of the Royal Family.
All police recruits undergo careful vetting to check whether they have a criminal record when they join the force.
To be accepted into the elite Westminster armed unit, officers must face rigorous tests and firearms training.
Scotland Yard has referred itself to the police watchdog over the arrest of its own officer and separately over the force’s actions after Sarah was reported missing.
It was previously revealed she spent a quarter of an hour on the phone making plans to see her boyfriend Josh Lowth the following day, before her mobile was either switched off or ran out of battery.
Mr Lowth, 33, whose LinkedIn says he is a marketing director, later raised the alarm to police when she failed to meet him as she had arranged, her aunt confirmed.
Further pressure was mounting earlier this month on Met chief Dame Cressida Dick after it emerged bosses at Scotland Yard missed three crucial clues about killer cop Wayne Couzens that could have seen him kicked out of the force before her murdered Sarah.
Couzens was reported to bosses for allegedly slapping a female colleague’s bottom at Bromley police station in 2018 — just weeks after he joined the force.
Shortly after starting at Bromley in South London, the married killer allegedly stopped a female motorist and said her tax and insurance were out of date before making a note of her address so he could later pull up outside her house and leer at her, The Sun on Sunday previously reported.
Couzens, whose former colleagues at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary allegedly nicknamed him ‘The Rapist’ because of how he is said to have made female colleagues uneasy, is also accused of parking his patrol car by schools so he could watch mothers and sixth-formers.
It also emerged that police will be told to take offences such as indecent exposure and street harassment — what a Home Office source described to the Sunday Times as ‘non-contact sexual offences’ — more seriously in the wake of the murder.
The latest allegations are likely to heap pressure on Commissioner Dame Crssida to explain why Couzens was not kicked out of the force — and why he became an armed member of the elite Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection squad at the time of Miss Everard’s killing.
Source: Daily Mail
