Former Metropolitan Police officer Samantha Lee’s dishonesty about her investigation into Wayne Couzens over two incidents of flashing amounted to gross misconduct, a disciplinary hearing has found.
The former constable was found by the hearing at Palestra House in Southwark to have failed to make “the correct investigative inquiries” over two incidents when Couzens exposed himself to female members of staff at a McDonald’s restaurant in Swanley, Kent, on 14 and 27 February 2021.
On both occasions, Couzens – then a serving Met Police officer – was seen by female staff to have his pants open and his penis on display.
Ms Lee attended the restaurant to interview the branch’s manager, Sam Taylor, hours before Couzens kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard in Clapham, southwest London, on 3 March.
Ms Lee was found to have lied about her actions when later questioned about the interview, claiming that she believed that CCTV at the restaurant was deleted automatically so there would be no footage of Couzens or the offence.
At a police disciplinary hearing, Mr Taylor said he had shown Ms Lee CCTV footage and told her it could be downloaded onto a USB stick.
“I showed her on the actual screen in the office,” he said.
“I showed her what I looked at before using the time from the receipts and it shows the car coming around.”
He said he told her Couzens’ registration plate could be seen in the CCTV footage of the second incident.
Panel chairman Darren Snow found Ms Lee’s dishonesty over this matter amounted to gross misconduct, and that had she still been a serving officer, she would have been dismissed from the force.
In March, Couzens – already serving a whole life prison term for the murder of Ms Everard in Clapham in March 2021 – was sentenced to 19 months in prison after admitting three counts of indecent exposure.
The third indecent exposure incident related to when Couzens exposed himself to a female cyclist on a Kent country lane in November 2020.
