Sarah Everard murder: Wayne Couzens falsely arrested and handcuffed victim

Sarah Everard was handcuffed by her murderer as he pretended to arrest her for breaching Covid guidelines.

Met Police officer Wayne Couzens abducted her as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham on 3 March.

Couzens showed his warrant card before restraining Ms Everard, 33, putting her in his hire car and driving away.

His sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey was told that her ordeal could be summarised as "deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire".

The 48-year-old had worked on Covid patrols in January, the court heard, and so would have known the appropriate formal terms regarding potential breaches.

The whole kidnapping took less than five minutes.

Ms Everard was handcuffed at 21:34 GMT and four minutes later she was being driven to Dover, where Couzens transferred her to his own car.

Couzens then drove to a remote rural area he knew well, where he raped Ms Everard. The sexual predator had clocked off from a 12-hour shift that morning.

Prosecutor Tom Little QC said Couzens must have taken Ms Everard's mobile phone from her and removed the sim card, which he tried to destroy.

Ms Everard was described by a former long-term boyfriend as "extremely intelligent, savvy and streetwise" and "not a gullible person", the court heard.

He could not envisage her getting into a car with someone she did not know "unless by force or manipulation", Mr Little said.

The abduction was witnessed by a couple travelling past in a car, but they "assumed Ms Everard must have done something wrong", the court was told.

One of the witnesses described a woman on the pavement who appeared to have her left arm behind her back and "was in the process of giving her other arm behind her back" as a man in dark clothing handcuffed her.

Mr Little said they believed they were witnessing an undercover police officer arresting a woman.

The exact time Ms Everard was killed could not be determined, although she was dead - strangled with Couzens' police belt - by about 02:30 on 4 March, when he stopped for snacks at a service station.

He then visited Hoads Wood near Ashford, Kent, leaving just before sunrise. Later that morning, he threw Ms Everard's mobile phone into a channel at Sandwich, where it was found by a police diver.

Lucy Manning, BBC special correspondent, from the Old Bailey:

Wayne Couzens shuffled into court his head bowed. Wearing a dark blue suit he confirmed his name.

Sarah's parents, and other family members, are in court listening to horrendous details about their daughter's kidnap, rape and murder.

In the public gallery many of her friends have also come to court to support them.

Three members of her family will read out statements this afternoon about how her murder has affected them.

The prosecutor said her murder was reported on social media as #shewasonlywalkinghome but the more appropriate five words to describe what Couzens did were "deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation and fire".

A week after she disappeared, Ms Everard's body was found in a woodland stream in Ashford, Kent, just metres from land owned by Couzens.

Her body and clothes had been put inside a refrigerator and set alight before being moved in builders' bags.

The court heard that a couple of days after burning Ms Everard's body, Couzens took his wife and two children on a family trip to the woods.

Mr Little said: "The defendant's plot of land is very close to, and in the same woods, where he was to burn Sarah Everard's body after he had murdered her.

"He then moved her body in green bags that he had purchased specifically for that task to a pond deeper into the woods, but which was only about 130 metres from his plot."

The firearms-trained parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer wiped his phone just minutes before he was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, on 9 March.

Couzens, who pleaded guilty in July to Ms Everard's murder, will be sentenced at the end of the two-day hearing. Lord Justice Fulford will consider whether to hand down a whole-life term.

The case prompted national outrage and sparked protests about violence against women, particularly as walking was one of the few activities to have been allowed during Britain's coronavirus lockdown.

Women across the country shared stories of being followed, harassed, catcalled and assaulted; and a number of vigils were held in honour of Ms Everard and to raise concerns about the safety of women.

A vigil held on Clapham Common led to the Met Police being accused of heavy-handedness for its tactics.

Ahead of the Couzens sentencing hearing, the Met Police issued a statement that said: "We are sickened, angered and devastated by this man's crimes, which betray everything we stand for.

"Our thoughts are with Sarah's family and her many friends. It is not possible for us to imagine what they are going through."

Couzens was sacked by the force in July.