Wayne Couzens: Met PCs deny sharing offensive messages with killer

Two serving Met police constables and an ex-officer have denied sharing grossly offensive messages with Sarah Everard's killer Wayne Couzens.

PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court accused of the offences between April and August 2019.

Couzens, 49, murdered Ms Everard last year while serving as a Met officer.

All three defendants were released on bail and a trial was set for 28 July.

PC Cobban, of Didcot, Oxfordshire, is charged with five counts of sending a grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message on a public electronic communications network, while PC Neville, of Weybridge, Surrey, is charged with two counts of the same offence.

Former Met officer Mr Borders, of Preston, Lancashire, also faces five counts of the same charge.

The alleged offences took place two years before Couzens kidnapped Sarah Everard in a fake arrest in March 2021, before raping and murdering the 33-year-old marketing executive.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) previously said the charges arose from an investigation into the phone records of Couzens.

In court, the three spoke only to confirm their names, addresses and dates of birth and to enter not guilty pleas to each of the charges, during a hearing lasting about 20 minutes.

The Met said the serving officers had been suspended from duty.