BRYONY GORDON: The police are still riddled with rapists, abusers and bad apples. Wayne Couzens wasn’t just a monstrous oddity
I still remember when the missing poster went up on the lamppost at the end of my street. My then seven-year-old daughter couldn’t understand it.
She wanted to know why the bleak flyers posted around our neighbourhood featured the photo of a young woman, and not a lost cat, as was more usual in the leafy, residential part of south-west London we call home.
How to explain to her that the woman in the photograph, Sarah Everard, had disappeared after visiting someone who lived on the very next road to ours; that there was a police search-and-rescue team currently stationed in our local park, scouring the duck pond for some grim sign that might lead them to discover the whereabouts of the 33-year-old marketing executive?
‘I could have given her a lift home,’ said one heartbroken neighbour, when we later found out what had happened to her.
Even today, five years on from that terrible time, I struggle to explain to my daughter what happened to Sarah Everard – because to do so is to tell her she probably shouldn’t trust the very systems and organisations that are supposed to protect her.
It involves recounting a story so hideous you can barely comprehend it, still, to this day: that as this young woman walked home from visiting a friend, she was kidnapped by a serving police officer, who went on to rape and murder her.
It involves explaining that there were multiple chances for police forces to stop Wayne Couzens, this man who was able to use his power and privilege for the most warped and evil of intentions. That he was able to become a Met Police officer, despite the fact he had been reported to authorities for indecently exposing himself.
I want to be able to tell my daughter that things have got better since Wayne Couzens was sent to jail for the remainder of his rotten, rancid life. That he was an aberration, a monstrous oddity…but, unfortunately, I can’t.
Bryony Gordon recalls seeing a missing poster of Sarah Everard, but worried about how she would explain the disappearance to her daughter, who had been asking questions about it
Met Police officer Wayne Couzens kidnapped Sarah, who was walking home after visiting a friend, and went on to rape and murder her
What about David Carrick, another ex-Met Police officer? A serial rapist, last year he was found guilty of nine further sexual offences – having already been jailed in 2023 for crimes against a dozen women over two decades.
It seems incredible that despite all we know about what happened to Everard, little has been done to meaningfully change the culture of abuse that exists within the police in this country.
Last year, the second part of the Angiolini Inquiry into Everard’s murder found that over a quarter of forces had still not implemented recommendations to safeguard women that were given to them in February 2024.
Then there was the investigation this week by Sky News, which found that an astonishing 94 per cent of police forces had investigated officers for rape in the last five years. Meanwhile, all the forces that responded to the channel’s Freedom of Information request had launched criminal inquiries for sexual offences allegations into officers, with 88 per cent being charged.
At the Metropolitan Police, more than a quarter (28 per cent) of officers under investigation for sexual misconduct between 2021 and 2025 were allowed to work without restriction.
‘It is an incredibly awful truth that we have abusers and perpetrators inside our organisation,’ said Helen Millichap, the deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police.
Millichap, who is also the national police lead for Violence Against Women and Girls, said the issue could be ‘one of the biggest factors preventing women and girls coming forward to report crimes to us’, as they may fear ‘they cannot trust the response they get’.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police Commissioner, said in response that the force had removed 1,500 officers from the force in the last three years. ‘That’s completely unprecedented,’ he said, as if it was something to be proud of.
As we approach International Women’s Day this Sunday, I find it astonishing to think how little things have changed since I was a teenager back in the 1990s, when it was perfectly normal to be catcalled and leered at in the street.
If anything, things have actually got worse since those days, because at least back then, we didn’t have to deal with widespread misogynistic abuse online, or the threat from the manosphere.
This week, a group of women laid flowers in memory of Everard at the bandstand on Clapham Common, not far from the spot where she was abducted by Couzens. I pass this place several times a week, and think often of her; how all the systems failed her, and failed her family and friends too.
Sarah’s mother, Susan, has written a beautiful tribute to her daughter in this month’s issue of Vogue, alongside a photo the magazine had taken of the then 23-year-old Sarah at a music festival.
‘It was 2010 when the photograph was taken and, although it is bittersweet, I love to see her, happy and beautiful, with her whole life ahead of her,’ wrote Susan. ‘I miss the goodness of Sarah: she was thoughtful and dependable and highly principled. I valued her opinion. I miss being able to talk to her and to ask for her thoughts and what she would do.’
What bravery Susan shows on this, the fifth anniversary of her beloved child’s murder. For the sake of all of our daughters, we must never stop talking about Sarah Everard.
Keep your feet on the ground, Harry
Just when you thought Harry Styles couldn’t be more perfect, he turns up topless on the cover of Runner’s World to discuss his sub-three-hour marathon time.
But anyone looking to the pop star for tips on how to shave seconds off their PB will not find them in the accompanying interview, where Styles discusses his love of running with the Japanese author Haruki Murakami.
Having impressively completed last year’s Berlin marathon in under three hours, Harry Styles features on the cover of Runner’s World
‘Personally, I’ve found the hypnotic, meditative aspect of music to have a lot of synergy with the meditative aspect of running,’ explains the star, pretentiously.
For goodness sake, Harry, it’s just a run. Keep your feet on the ground.
Dubai isn’t as luxe as it looks
It’s difficult to have sympathy for the influencers scrambling to leave their luxury Dubai lifestyles. I’ve travelled to the Gulf state a few times, and always found it a curiously soulless place to visit.
The beaches are either in the shadow of towering skyscrapers and cranes, or if you’re on the Palm – the man-made archipelago stretching into the Arabian Sea – entirely manufactured, with sun loungers that feel as if they’ve been plonked on coarse builder’s sand.
I do have some sympathy for the tourists who have accidentally found themselves stuck in a war zone, but most of the time, it’s like holidaying on a construction site.
Our columnist, Bryony Gordon, has travelled to Dubai before, but describes it as ‘a curiously soulless place’
Seven hours and 18 minutes? I wish!
According to a study from Nantong University in China, the perfect time in the land of nod is a very specific seven hours and 18 minutes, as it helps to control blood sugar and stave off diabetes.
But I don’t need scientists to tell me what the ideal amount of sleep is, because I’ve long known the answer. Put simply, it’s not the amount I got last night!
