Wayne Couzens: Sarah Everard killer should be ‘stripped of pension’ from Civil Nuclear Constabulary

Killer cop Wayne Couzens should be stripped of his pension from his time in the civil nuclear police force, Downing Street has said.

The former armed officer, who murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021 after kidnapping her using his warrant card, has already had his pension from the Metropolitan Police taken away. However, it was feared that he could still be in line to receive payments from his seven years at the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC).

London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote to Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps asking for the benefit to be taken away, with the CNC itself backing the calls but stressing that the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority – that falls under Shapps’s government department – is the pensions administrator and responsible for making the decision.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Monday: “We fully support the recommendation of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary that he be stripped of his pension so he doesn’t benefit from his years of serving. I think Grant Shapps, who is the relevant minister, is seeking an urgent update from the pensions administrator.”

Couzens served in the CNC from 2011 to 2018, and it is thought could be in line for payments of around £7,000 per year. He has already been stripped of his Metropolitan Police pension, after Khan applied for its forfeiture in January. Following his conviction for Ms Everard’s murder, the CNC recommended that Couzens’ pension should also be forfeited.

Chief Constable Simon Chesterman said: “The CNC is not the pensions authority or administrator of the pension scheme. On Couzens’ conviction we made a formal recommendation that any pension entitlements arising from his CNC employment should be forfeited and our position remains unchanged.”

Khan said in his letter to Mr Shapps: “I seek your assurance that you will take all possible steps to ensure that Couzens is stripped of his pension. This is what the public would rightly expect.”

The Energy Security Secretary said in response: “This horrendous crime shocked the nation and it is right this monster spends the rest of his life in a prison cell. I fully support the recommendation of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary that he be stripped of his pension so he does not benefit from his years serving, and I am seeking an urgent update on the matter from the pension administrator.”

Ms Everard was snatched by Couzens walked home from visiting a friend in Clapham, south London, on the evening of 3 March 2021. At about 9pm that night, she had set off on foot for the two-and-a-half mile journey home from her friend’s house, chatting with her boyfriend by mobile phone on the way.

A camera attached to a passing marked police car captured her walking alone at 9.32pm. Just three minutes later, a bus camera appeared to capture the moment she was intercepted by Couzens, not long after he had clocked off a 12-hour night shift. Ms Everard’s kidnapping took less than five minutes. She was handcuffed at about 9.34pm, detained in Couzens’ hire car by 9.37pm and they were on their way to Kent a minute later.

Couzens raped Ms Everard before murdering her and buring her body in a woodland near Ashford, where it was found a week later. Couzens has since been jailed with a whole-life tariff.