According to the hearing, the restaurant manager showed “PC surveillance footage of the car used by Couzens.”
The restaurant manager has contradicted testimonies from a former Metropolitan Police officer who claimed she was never shown CCTV footage of a car Wayne Couzens was using when he paraded female members of his staff.
Former police officer Samantha Lee is said to have failed to start “the proper investigations” into two incidents when Couzens exposed herself to female employees at a fast food restaurant in Swanley, Kent, during a police disciplinary hearing on February 14 and 27, it was said .
On both occasions, Couzens was spotted by female staff members unbuttoning his trousers and showing off his penis.
Ms Lee visited the restaurant on March 3 and interviewed the restaurant manager hours before Sarah Everard was kidnapped by Couzens in Clapham, south west London.
Ms Lee is said to have lied about her actions when later questioned about the interview, as she claimed she believed the restaurant’s CCTV was automatically cleared and therefore there was no CCTV evidence of Couzens or the offence.
However, at Tuesday’s hearing, the manager said he showed Ms Lee CCTV footage and told her it could be downloaded onto a USB stick.
“I showed them on the actual screen in the office,” he said at the hearing.
“I showed her what I was looking at before using the time from the receipts and it shows the car coming by.”
He said he explained to her that Couzens’ license plate number was on the CCTV footage of the second incident.
I told her (Samantha Lee) everything I knew and I explained how we caught him (Wayne Couzens) the second time around
He said he knew from the timestamps on Couzens’ receipts what times to play the CCTV.
The manager added: “I said we could burn that onto a USB stick.”
He said he showed her all the evidence he had.
“I told her everything I knew and I explained how we caught him the second time around,” he said.
He said Ms. Lee stayed in the restaurant for a total of “probably” 10 minutes.
“It wasn’t fast, it wasn’t long either, it was probably 10 minutes,” he said.
The manager also told the hearing that he had given her Couzens’ receipts from the two incidents, which showed the same last four digits of a credit card number, and testimonies he had collected from the victims.
On March 12, following the arrest of Couzens three days earlier, a meeting took place between Ms. Lee and her commanding officer, Inspector Rita Jones.
Ms Jones said she was “shocked” to find that Ms Lee still had the testimony and it had not been placed in a sealed evidence bag.
“I was a little shocked that she still had them,” she said. “That was two weeks later.”
She added that Ms. Lee did not mention the existence of the receipts and was unaware at the time that there had been two incidents of the money being shown.
However, she said Couzens’ offenses during the incidents were “moderate risk” at most and had not been classified as an “instant call”.
“The risk is now at a medium risk level,” she said.
“They would ask them to do this as a matter of priority, maybe not as an immediate call but as a priority.”
In March this year, Couzens was sentenced to 19 months in prison after admitting to three counts of indecent exposure.
He was already serving a life sentence for kidnapping and then murdering Ms Everard on March 3, 2021 on her way home through Clapham, south London.
The third incident of indecent exposure involved Couzens, who exposed himself to a cyclist on a country lane in Kent in November 2020.
Ms Lee is said to have violated police standards of duty and responsibility, honesty and integrity.
If it turns out that she has committed gross misconduct, she could be banned from serving with the police again.
She denies both allegations.
The misconduct hearing at Palestra House in Southwark is expected to last seven days.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/wayne-couzens-cctv-metropolitan-police-swanley-kent-b1081499.html According to the hearing, the restaurant manager showed “PC surveillance footage of the car used by Couzens.”
