A major independent inquiry has delivered a scathing indictment of police and government inaction on systemic misogyny, more than four years after the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.
A Catalogue of Preventable Failures
In her second report, Lady Elish Angiolini reveals that a core recommendation from her initial findings has still not been fully implemented. Her first report, published in February 2023, urged that any individual with a caution or conviction for a sexual offence should be automatically rejected during police vetting.
It took police chiefs 18 months to agree to a blanket ban on such recruits, and even then, the proposed Home Office regulations issued in September 2024 did not initially include it. The Home Office has now confirmed the ban will be added, but it will not be applied retrospectively.
This delay is particularly shocking given the well-documented history of Couzens, who was a prolific user of violent pornography and had repeatedly exposed himself in public before his horrific crimes. The report underscores that Couzens, like serial rapist David Carrick who served in the same force, should never have been allowed to become a police officer.
The Scale of the Problem Within Policing
Angiolini's latest findings shed stark light on the extent of the issue. Checks against the police national database in the 2023-24 period led to 461 police officers, staff, and volunteers being referred to "an appropriate authority". These checks triggered nine new criminal investigations and 88 disciplinary investigations.
Despite numerous pledges and reviews following Everard's murder, the report paints a picture of ongoing institutional failure. A quarter of police forces in England and Wales have still not implemented basic policies for investigating sexual offences. Efforts to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG) are described as "fragmented, underfunded and overly reliant on short-term solutions".
A 2023 promise to treat VAWG with the same strategic priority as terrorism has not been honoured. "Too often prevention in this space remains just words," Angiolini states bluntly.
A Cycle of Reports Without Meaningful Action
The report identifies a damaging pattern: public outrage following a high-profile case, followed by a commissioned review, which then leads to minimal concrete change. This cycle was seen after the conviction of rapist taxi driver John Worboys in 2009, which prompted the Stern Review, and again after the sharp drop in rape prosecutions that led to an "end-to-end rape review" in 2021.
Angiolini notes that the current Labour government, which won power 18 months ago with a pledge to halve VAWG within a decade, has yet to reveal its strategy for delivering on this promise.
The underlying issue, the report suggests, is a culture of disbelief towards victims. Until recently, traumatised women were forced to hand over years of personal data from phones and records to proceed with an investigation, a demand not made of suspects. A past report admitted investigations were hampered by officers dismissing rape as "regretful sex".
Angiolini's insistence that "perpetrators must be the focus" is highlighted as a crucial shift. This aligns with Justice Secretary David Lammy's announcement this week that rape victims will no longer be portrayed as serial liars in courtrooms.
The conclusion is clear: without a fundamental cultural overhaul and the decisive removal of officers who share the mindset of perpetrators, the impunity that protects the vast majority of sexual offenders will continue.
