LONDON: A British police officer has pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape of a woman as she walked home in south London and whose body was found a week later in the woods.
A court at London’s Old Bailey heard on Tuesday that Wayne Couzens, 48, accepted responsibility for the death of Sarah Everard though he was not asked to enter a plea to a charge of murder.
Medical reports to the former Metropolitan Police officer, who appeared by video link from Belmarsh prison, are being prepared.
A further hearing before the judge, Adrian Fulford, will take place on July 9.
Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, went missing as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on March 3.
A major police investigation was launched and her body was found a week later in a woodland in the southeast county of Kent.
Everard’s disappearance and killing caused a nationwide outcry, with women sharing experiences of being threatened or attacked or simply facing the everyday fear of violence when walking alone.
Members of Everard’s family sat in court to witness the defendant enter his pleas.