Ministers have so far been unable to strip Wayne Couzens, the former police officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard, of his public sector pension and are considering introducing legislation if required, Sky News can reveal.
In March 2021, when he was a serving Metropolitan Police officer, Couzens used his police warrant to lure Sarah Everard into a fake arrest while she was walking home from a friend’s house in south London, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He later raped and murdered her.
In 2023, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan successfully applied to the home secretary to have any money that Couzens could have earned in pension payments while serving at the Met forfeited.
It’s understood to be so small that it would be a negligible amount because of the short length of service there.
Mr Khan, who is also the city’s police and crime commissioner, at the time also believed Couzens had “approximately seven years’ pension service” with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), between 2011 and 2018, according to a letter shared with Sky News.
This is a special force which guards nuclear facilities and is the ultimate responsibility of the energy secretary. It is not like other forces, which fall under the home secretary.
In a letter from 2023 to the then energy secretary, Grant Shapps, and shared with Sky News, Mr Khan said the CNC portion of Couzens’ pension “sits outside the normal police pension regulations”.
Freedom of information data obtained by Sky News shows there were no pension forfeitures from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary between 2020 and September 2025. It is understood that remains the case.
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