The monstrous and brutal murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer has quite rightly shocked and angered the nation. The scumbag that is the murderer Couzens used his police warrant card to falsely arrest Ms Everard and police equipment to murder her.

Couzens is quite rightly going to serve a whole life tariff prison sentence but that should not be the end of this matter. There are ongoing questions as to what Couzens might have done prior to the murder of Ms Everard and his name has been mentioned in connection with incidents of indecent exposure. There is also the matter of his alleged nickname in police circles which was ‘the rapist’ which makes me wonder how much of his prior bad behaviour was to a large extent tolerated by the Met.

I also have questions about how Couzens was vetted. He was a firearms authorised officer and that position should have meant that he should have been subjected to some form of psychological profiling to ascertain whether or not he was a fit and proper officer to handle and possess a gun. He also came to the Met from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary an entity that is tasked with protecting, in some cases with heavy weaponry, British nuclear materials and facilities. Despite all the high profile and specialist policing areas that Couzens worked in, neither the Met nor the CNC bothered to properly check whether or not this officer was safe or sane.

If high profile firearms officers can be murderers who slip through the net of vetting then it gives me little confidence in how the police run themselves. When thinking about this case I cannot help but wonder ‘how many more like Couzens are lurking in our police forces?’