Ex-Met Police PC who ‘failed to investigate Wayne Couzens flashing’ faces misconduct hearing

A former Metropolitan Police officer is facing a misconduct hearing over claims she failed to investigate indecent exposure by Wayne Couzens before the murder of Sarah Everard.

Samantha Lee, who was a Constable based in the South Area Command Unit, is accused of “failing to undertake the correct investigative enquiries” in March 2021 after Couzens had exposed himself to staff at a takeaway restaurant.

Couzens is serving the rest of his life in prison for the kidnap, rape, and murder of Ms Everard as she walked home through south London on March 3, 2021.

The horrific killing came after a pattern of escalating sexual offending by Couzens, who was then a serving firearms officer in the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit.

He has since admitted flashing takeaway staff twice, in February 2021, and an Old Bailey hearing was told that evidence linking Couzens to the crimes was passed to police. However he had not been identified as the culprit at the time Ms Everard was snatched and killed.

Lee, who is no longer a PC, is facing a seven-day misconduct hearing due to start on May 15. “It is alleged that in March 2021 former PC Lee failed to undertake the correct investigative enquiries into an allegation of indecent exposure (concerning Wayne Couzens as the named suspect) and that she subsequently provided a misleading account of her actions when questioned about them”, the hearing announcement says.

“It is alleged that in doing so the following Standards of Professional Behaviour have been breached: Duties and Responsibilities; Honesty and Integrity.”

The misconduct hearing will take place in public at a venue in Southwark.

Couzens was sentenced to 19 months in prison in March after he admitted three counts of indecent exposure. This is included the two takeaway incidents and a third, from November 2020, when he stood naked by the side of the road in the view of a passing female cyclist.