The three Met officers charged for allegedly sharing grossly offensive messages with Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens were today finally named by the Crown Prosecution Service as it backed down following a secrecy row.
The three officers, two of whom are still serving, are accused of sharing racist and misogynistic texts with the former protection officer about two years before he abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.
The CPS announced the trio were charged with sending grossly offensive messages over WhatsApp between April and August 2019. But their names were withheld by the CPS for ‘operational reasons’ – prompting claims they were receiving ‘special treatment’.
Today the officers were named as Pc Jonathon Cobban, 35, Pc William Neville, 33, and ex-constable Joel Borders, 45.
Wayne Couzens in Folkestone when he worked for Kent Police before joining the Met
Cobban and Borders have both been charged with five counts of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network contrary to S127 of the Communications Act 2003.
Neville has been charged with two counts of sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network contrary to S127 of the Communications Act 2003.
The CPS announced earlier this month that trio had been charged with sending grossly offensive messages over WhatsApp between April and August 2019.
The decision to withhold their names followed after a Supreme Court ruling confirming criminal suspects have the right to privacy, meaning they cannot be named by the press before they are charged with an offence.
Despite this ruling defendants, including police officers such as Couzens, are identified when they are charged, so the decision to withhold the names is highly unusual.
The decision to withhold the identities is not thought to have been made by Scotland Yard or the Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog (IOPC), and a source said both bodies disagreed with the anonymity. MPs and lawyers last night slammed the decision as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘a charade’.
Nazir Afzal, former chief prosecutor for the North West, said naming the defendants could not risk prejudicing a trial as details of the officers’ relationship with Couzens would inevitably emerge in court.
He said: ‘I think it is ridiculous. As soon as these officers are in front of a magistrate or judge they will say of course you should be named.
‘We don’t have secret justice in this country for good reason and it should not start now.
‘Regardless of the crime said to have been committed, the identity of the accused should not be kept a secret.’
Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, said it appeared as if the officers were receiving special treatment. He said: ‘This will only exacerbate the public feeling that the people in charge of the law feel like they are above it.
‘There can’t be special treatment for police officers. They are people in trusted positions so if they are accused of something the law needs to be seen to be done.’
Sarah Everard, 33, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Couzens in March last year
Detectives investigating Couzens after Miss Everard’s murder found the allegedly grossly offensive material on one of the killer’s old phones. The two serving officers were placed on restricted duties while the investigation was ongoing but Scotland Yard confirmed yesterday they had now been suspended.
After an investigation the IOPC sent a file to the CPS this month. The three were charged yesterday and will appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on March 16.
Former parliamentary protection officer Couzens, 48, was handed a whole life term at the Old Bailey last September after pleading guilty in July.
Miss Everard disappeared while walking home in south London last March and was later discovered on waste ground more than 50 miles away in Kent strangled.
Couzens used Covid curbs at the time and his warrant card to stop his victim in the street and get her into a hire car.
The charges come amid reports that a forthcoming inquiry into the Met’s response to police corruption was briefed to London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Priti Patel in the run-up to Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick’s resignation. The report, by watchdog Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), scrutinised the Met after last summer’s inquiry into the 1987 killing of private investigator Daniel Morgan which ruled the force suffered ‘institutional corruption’.
Its conclusions have yet to be made public – but are said to raise serious questions about Scotland Yard’s response to dealing with corrupt officers.
Couzens abducted Sarah Everard as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3, abusing his position as a police officer to force her into his car
The HMIC report’s impact on Dame Cressida’s decision to quit is not known.
But sources said it was not the key factor in Mr Khan’s lack of confidence in her plans to reform the Met.
Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said today: ‘Following a referral of evidence by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the CPS authorised charges against two serving Metropolitan Police officers and one former officer.
‘PC Jonathon Cobban, 35, PC William Neville, 33, and former officer Joel Borders, 45, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 16 March for their first hearing.
‘Each of the three defendants has been charged with sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network. The alleged offences took place on a WhatsApp group chat.
‘The function of the CPS is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges to a court to consider.
‘Criminal proceedings are active and nothing should be published that could jeopardise the defendants right to a fair trial.’
The IOPC said: ‘The IOPC’s investigation began following a referral from the MPS in April last year (2021) and was completed in December when we referred a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
‘The CPS has taken the decision to authorise charges against the officers.’
The three suspects will make a first appearance before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 16.
