Police forces to overhaul how they deal with officers caught flashing after damning Wayne Couzens report
29 February 2024, 08:23
Police forces are to dramatically change the way they deal with reports of indecent exposure in the wake of the damning inquiry into Wayne Couzens.
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Today, the long-awaited review by Dame Elish Angiolini will be published. It is expected to be highly critical of both Kent Constabulary and the Metropolitan Police for missing numerous opportunities to catch Couzens for indecent exposure.
The Telegraph reports that police chiefs will vow to pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry when allegations of indecent exposure are reported.
Chiefs will say this is not only the right thing to do for the victim, but will also help prevent flashing offences escalating into serious sexual violence.
Official figures suggest fewer than six per cent of the annual 10,000 offences of indecent exposure result in a charge or summons.
The Angiolini Inquiry report is also expected to highlight glaring problems in the police vetting system, which allowed Couzens to transfer from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) into the Met, despite his name being linked to a sexual offence in 2015.
Couzens was working for Scotland Yard’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection unit, but was off duty, when he used his police warrant card to abduct Ms Everard as she walked through Clapham, South London. He was off-duty at the time.
Before joining the Met, in June 2015 Kent Police investigated Couzens for flashing after a couple came forward after seeing a man exposing himself while driving through Dover.
Despite providing police with a description and a car registration number that was tracked to Couzens the case was closed after the witnesses declined to support the investigation.
In November 2020, Couzens exposed himself to a female cyclist in an isolated part of rural Kent, but again police failed to investigate the matter properly.
The victim reported the incident to Kent Police, providing a description of Couzens and a partial car registration, but the force said it was unable to progress the investigation without the full number plate. The victim was subsequently diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Just weeks before Couzens abducted and murdered Ms Everard he exposed on two separate occasions at a branch of McDonald's drive thru in Swanley, Kent.
The incidents were reported to Scotland Yard and officers were provided with details of Couzens’ car registration and bank details.
But the investigation was not treated as a priority and had not been properly progressed by March 3 2021, when he attacked and murdered Ms Everard.
It is understood Dame Elish’s report is also expected to demand an overhaul of the vetting system with previous reports warning that pimps, gangsters and predatory sex offenders had managed to slip through the net and join the police.
In 2022 a report by Dame Louise Casey warned that an “anything goes” culture had been allowed to develop in the Met with racists, misogynists and criminals allowed to stay in the force.
