Ministers may toughen response to indecent exposure after Wayne Couzens inquiry

The Home Office and police chiefs are to consider toughening their response to indecent exposure after a public inquiry into how Wayne Couzens was able to rape and murder Sarah Everard in 2021.

The home secretary, James Cleverly, said on Monday that he accepted the recommendations of a public inquiry into the case of Couzens, which last month called for “a fundamental review of the way masturbatory indecent exposure is treated within the criminal justice system” amid fears it is a precursor to physical assaults.

Cleverly said: “Huge strides have already been taken to root out officers not fit to wear the badge and bolster safeguards to prevent the wrong people joining the force. Now we will work with policing partners to understand the link between indecent exposure and an escalation in behaviour to ensure the right measures are in place to catch more criminals, earlier.”

Related: Dismissing indecent exposure as ‘flashing’ led to the murder of Sarah Everard | Lady Elish Angiolini

The government also accepted the recommendation by the inquiry’s chair, Lady Elish Angiolini, to commission research on the link between masturbatory indecent exposure and subsequent “contact offending”. There will be a public campaign to boost reporting of indecent exposure and the sending of unsolicited photographs of genitals, both of which are criminal offences.

Couzens, who pleaded guilty last year to three offences of indecent exposure, with other charges left on file, was allowed to work for several police forces before he raped and murdered Sarah Everard, after picking her up on a London street in March 2021.

Last month Angiolini published a 361-page report damning police culture and finding Couzens had been allowed to continue working despite being the subject of reports to police for indecent exposure and that officers showed “apathy and disinterest and found reasons not to pursue the cases”.

She found that he was allowed to serve despite a woman’s claim he raped her in 2006 while he was a special constable with Kent police, and another allegation he raped a woman in October 2019 while he was an officer with the Met. He is also alleged to have tried to sexually assault a man dressed in drag in a Kent bar in summer 2019, during which he used his status as a police officer to silence the man’s complaints. She found Couzens was also alleged to have had indecent images of children and was also alleged to have attacked a child.

Some of the allegations were not reported to police before Couzens killed Everard, but eight allegations were passed to officers, with next to nothing done.

Last month, the government set out changes to the police disciplinary system to automatically suspend any officer charged with an indictable offence. It also set out legislation that it said will make it easier to sack officers who fail to hold basic vetting approvals when rechecked, as well as anyone found guilty of gross misconduct.

Couzens was not a “bad apple”, Angiolini found, citing the imprisonment of a second police officer from the same unit as Couzens – the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command – for multiple rapes and serious sexual offences against 11 women.

Her report found he should never have been hired as a police officer in the first instance. He was employed by the civil nuclear constabulary despite being in debt, which the vetting rules in 2011 said should be a bar to being hired. When he was hired by the Met in 2018, Scotland Yard missed material on the police national database linking his car to an allegation of indecent exposure in Kent in 2015. The same forced bungled a vetting check in 2019 by missing his potential sexual offending, and gave him a gun.

The case “damaged the social contract on which British policing is based, namely policing by consent”, she said.

Laura Farris, minister for victims and safeguarding, said: “Sarah Everard’s murder shocked the nation, devastated her loved ones and has profound implications for the future of policing. The Angiolini inquiry comprehensively reviewed the facts and circumstances that contributed to Wayne Couzens’ offending and we are grateful to her for her work.

“We have already made a series of significant changes to police vetting, disciplinary and dismissal procedures. But we accept her further recommendations on non-contact offences and the escalatory risk that they may pose. We are determined to leave no stone unturned in preventing an offence of this kind from ever happening again.”

• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html