Sarah Everard was “arrested” by Wayne Couzens before he kidnapped, raped and murdered her, court hears

Sarah Everard was “arrested” by Wayne Couzens before he kidnapped, raped and murdered her, a court has heard.

A two-day sentencing hearing for the former cop has began today at the Old Bailey.

Ms Everard, 33, went missing on Wednesday March 3 while walking through Clapham Common to her home in Brixton.

Prosecutor Tom Little told the court today that the marketing executive was “arrested” by Wayne Couzens who handcuffed her after showing his warrant card.

The court also heard details of her last moments.

Ms Everard had worked from home on the day of her disappearance and planned to have dinner with a friend later that evening.

“She walked all the way there and would have walked all the way back had she not been kidnapped,” prosecutor Tom Little said.

Security camera footage was then played to the court which showed Ms Everard walking to her friend’s house and calling into a Sainsbury’s store where she bought a bottle of wine.

Ms Everard’s friends and family are said to have watched quietly from the public gallery as clips of her inside Sainsbury’s are shown.

She went to Sainsbury’s on Brixton Hill to buy a bottle of red wine, before heading towards Clapham Junction via Cavendish Road.

She was wearing a pale beanie hat, a short turquoise raincoat, leggings or jogging bottoms with a distinctive black and white chevron pattern, green running trainers with orange/fluorescent laces, with a red-coloured zipped Montane jumper/fleece under her jacket and a pale top under that.

The court heard that fragments of Ms Everard’s clothing were found in the area where her body was burnt in woodland in Kent.

Ms Everard was in “good spirits” when she left her friend’s house at around 9.10pm that night and spoke to her boyfriend on the phone for 14 minutes and 52 seconds, the court heard.

Her boyfriend said she appeared to be walking briskly and was “not intoxicated”, prosecutor Tom Little told the court.

Mr Little QC said: “They made plans for the rest of the week. She sounded in good spirits but not intoxicated, and the conversation ended normally, as if Sarah was just going to continue walking home through South London, something she did routinely.

“That was the last family, friends and colleagues heard from Sarah Everard.

“She did not text her friend to say she had got home on Mar 3. She did not attend a scheduled client meeting on the morning of March 4.

“Her boyfriend’s messages about their plans for the rest of the week had not been read and went unanswered, and there was no sign of her using her telephone or social media such as Instagram, despite her normally doing so.

“From 11:38pm all attempts to call her mobile telephone went to ‘call forward’.”

As she made her way along Cavendish Road and Poynders Road, Couzens was driving through Clapham Common, emerging from The Avenue, onto Cavendish Road and Poynders Road, travelling in the same direction as her.

Footage shown to the court showed Ms Everard standing on the pavement, behind a car, facing Couzens, with both of them just a few feet apart.

Mr Little said: “In the final sequence of footage, the defendant appears to touch his belt and to be holding up his hand towards Sarah Everard, as if showing her something in it.”

A couple, who were travelling home on the A205, witnessed the arrest from their car as they passed.

The passenger is said to have thought she was witnessing an undercover police officer arresting a woman, whom she assumed “must have done something wrong”.

The court heard that Ms Everard was compliant, with her head down and did not appear to be arguing.

Mr Little, told the Old Bailey: “They were in fact witnessing the kidnapping of Sarah Everard. She was detained by fraud.

“The defendant using his warrant card and handcuffs as well as his other Police issue equipment to effect a false arrest.

“Having handcuffed her to the rear she would not have been able to undo the seatbelt that the defendant must have placed over her.

“That was the start of her lengthy ordeal including an 80 mile journey whilst detained which was to lead first to her rape and then her murder.

“At some point fairly soon after driving from the pavement onto the South Circular and having not gone to a police station, Sarah Everard must have realised her fate.”

The judge, Lord Justice Fulford, has previously discussed the possibility of Couzens being sentenced to a whole-life prison term.

A spokesman for the Met Police said: “We are sickened, angered and devastated by this man’s crimes which betray everything we stand for.

“Our thoughts are with Sarah’s family and her many friends. It is not possible for us to imagine what they are going through.

“We recognise his actions raise many questions and concerns but we will not be commenting further until the hearing is complete.”