By Mollie Malone, news correspondent, and Joely Santa Cruz, data journalist
Dozens of serving police officers across the country have been investigated for rape since the murder of Sarah Everard, Sky News can reveal.
Today marks five years since Ms Everard was raped and killed by serving off-duty police officer Wayne Couzens, who abducted her during a fake arrest.
A Sky News investigation has found there have been widespread criminal investigations into officers over allegations of rape and sexual offences since then, across forces in England and Wales.
Sarah Everard’s murder ignited a national conversation over violence against women
Sarah Everard’s murder ignited a national conversation over violence against women
Seventeen out of 43 police forces responded to our Freedom of Information requests, representing 40%.
All of those 17 forces confirmed they had launched criminal inquiries for sexual offences allegations into officers, while 16 had done so for rape allegations.
Six told Sky News they had brought rape charges, and 15 confirmed charges for sexual offences allegations, in the past five years.
“It’s an incredibly awful truth that we have abusers and perpetrators inside our organisation,” Helen Millichap, deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, told Sky News.
Ms Millichap, who is the national police lead for Violence Against Women and Girls, said the issue could be “one of the biggest factors preventing women and girls coming forward to report crimes to us” as they may fear “they cannot trust the response they get”.
Our investigation has also found evidence of officers continuing to work as normal, without suspension or restricted duties, during investigations for sexual abuse allegations.
At the Metropolitan Police, more than a quarter (28%) of officers continued working unrestricted while under investigation for sexual misconduct between 2021 and 2025.
The force has been conducting a higher rate of sexual misconduct investigations since 2021, as a result of increased scrutiny and re-vetting initiatives.
Sexual misconduct is an internal investigation, which can later amount to criminal proceedings. Those subject to inquiry for alleged gross misconduct can be suspended.
“People should be reassured… if there’s a criminal allegation of sexual or domestic violence in nature, the starting presumption is an officer is going to be suspended,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told Sky News.
“We’ve removed 1,500 people from the Met in three years, that’s completely unprecedented,” he said.
“I think we’ve gotten through a large part of the problem, but I’m not saying we’ve got through all of it. That work continues.”
Sir Mark said Sarah “should still be alive today and if policing was better then she might still be alive today”,
The force “will always be profoundly sorry” for her murder “at the hands of a police officer”, he added.
