I'm Haunted By Horror Of My Precious Little Girl's Murder

Sarah’s family tell of their devastation in face-to-face confrontation with her killer

- John Twomey

Sarah Everard’s mother is “tormented” by thoughts of what her daughter endured before her murder.

Susan Everard bravely told a court she is “haunted” by the marketing executive’s suffering in the final hours of her life when she was raped and murdered by police officer Wayne Couzens.

He had falsely arrested Sarah for breaching Covid guidelines, keeping her captive using his handcuffs before strangling her with his police belt, then burning her body.

Mrs Everard came face-to-face with Couzens during an emotional witness statement at the Old Bailey.

The Everards had been forced to listen to harrowing details of how Couzens raped and strangled Sarah with his police belt after falsely arresting her for breaching Covid rules and handcuffing her arms behind her back.

Couzens, 48, targeted Sarah as she walked home on Clapham Common, south London, on March 3.

After killing her 80 miles away near Dover, Kent, he dumped her body in a discarded fridge on remote woodland and set it alight with petrol – described by Mrs Everard as “the final insult”.

Sarah’s family’s victim impact statements were among the most moving heard at the Old Bailey.

As Couzens sat, head-bowed, in the dock charity worker Mrs Everard said: “The feeling of loss is so great it is visceral. And with the sorrow comes waves of panic at not being able to see her again.

“I can never talk to her, never hold her again, and never more be a part of her life. We have kept her dressing gown – it still smells of her and I hug that instead of her.” Sarah’s mother, who also has a son, told Couzens: “Her death leaves a yawning chasm in our lives that cannot be filled.