Sarah Everard's murder

It's obviously a tragedy and absolutely disgusting what happened to her and I hope her killer rots in the most horrible conditions possible till he's well into his 90s. I just wanted to say that first before commenting further.

Now the thing I'm posting about is why are a lot of murderers and criminals in general so stupid? As a police officer and trainee firearms officer I'd assume that Wayne couzens isn't actually thick in general. He's obviously got a good job and a lot of responsibility so I'd generally assume he's not an idiot.
Except he, like so many other serious criminals, just is.
He hired a car in his own name. Parked the car with its hazards on attracting attention and had his victim next to the car for a short while before driving her in said car to where he lived. All on CCTV of course as anyone with half a brain should realise. They saw her on CCTV next to a car which was doing it's best to get attention with big flashy hazards. Reg plate identified it instantly as a hire car in his bloody name.
He then proceeded to hide the body in how own woodland which is obviously the first place anyone would look once they know he took her.

I'll never understand how anyone can commit such awful crimes but in a way they don't shock me anymore which is sad really. What shocks me more is just how sloppy they usually are. Is it just me who thinks like that?

 

The scary part is realising that it seems like all criminals are idiots because it's generally only the stupid ones that get caught!

 

that's a good point

 

Perhaps he thought the Met wouldn’t chase one of their own.
He’d been reported three times for exposing himself and other sex offences. Incompetence of the highest level. Others in the force should be brought into question. This young lass may have still been alive if they’d done their job.

 

I don’t think it’s that he was stupid, as in he thought he had planned it perfectly and that no one could catch him but it was actually a stupid plan, I think it was possibly a case of one of:

1) he didn’t care if he was caught (not necessarily that he had thought about it and didn’t mind but that he hadn’t actually even thought as far as the consequences as he was too obsessed with wanting to commit the crime)

2) he wanted to be caught (as he left such an obvious trail)

3) he was arrogant and thought he’d get away with it anyway as he hadn’t been picked up for his earlier crimes (possibly even a challenge to see what he could get away with)

Whatever it was, I hope he rots in jail.

 

That almost completely mirrors the conversation my wife and I had - don't forget that he also disposed of her body inside one of two builders bags ... that he was on CCTV buying from B&Q.

Maybe the answer is that only someone that stupid would conceive this - and the 'clever' criminal is the rarity.

 

The way in which this horrific murder was clearly pre meditated makes me wonder how many more victims there might be? I mean this is normally something you see in places like America these days, but wouldn’t surprise me if we have a serial killer on our hands.

 

Exactly this. There are many more unsolved missing persons cases than there are closed murder/suicide verdicts.

 

You're putting yourself in the shoes of the killer not the victim so I'd say that's bordering on pyschopathic and dangerous. I'm sure you're a lovely person really mind .

 

Fc uke d up .

 

This threads deranged. Everyone speculating how they'd have got away with it. You might not be openly saying that but that's how it comes across.

 

I always think exactly the same when something like this arises. Classic example for me is Fred West - look how many he bumped off!
There's probably a few more like minded individuals knocking around somewhere

 

If you’re gonna go round abducting and murdering people and want to evade being caught; the first thing is to make sure your victim isn’t blonde and attractive with a strong social network. They do tend to attract public interest and therefore large police investigations.

As above, Dennis Nielsen, Fred West and others avoided capture by murdering people who were invisible to society. Thousands of people go missing every year, only a handful are news stories.

 

Yes.

Glad it's not just me that thought that!

 

Cases like this are on the rare occasions I wish we still had the death penalty.

I can’t get my head around how you can plan to murder a random person

 

But people do.
In fact I don’t know the exact details but there’s a discussion re the fact that we consider people with mental illnesses to be not criminally responsible, and how is a psychopath not mentally ill?

 

Announced this morning 12 Met police under investigation.

 

Eeeeeeek

 

Indeed, I vaguely remember watching a documentary on the subject once and many psychopaths aren't serial killers or even violent. They are often without remorse or empathy, its a interesting subject where we draw the line of personal responsibility.

 

I think that there's a distinction to be drawn in terms of talking about it and acting on it mate.

My Dad used to subscribe to one of those magazines that were delivered once a month (no, not those ones) called "Murder Casebook" I think. He was a prison officer at Wakefield at the time and even though I was a kid I was fascinated by them.

I'd read them and often think "I'd have done that instead" - but that's just me analysing what I'd read. I've never once had a hint of an inclination to do it. I'm the sort of person who doesn't even kill spiders!

I don't think commenting on what an amateur job someone you'd expect to have some knowledge of forensic countermeasures, had done makes it deranged.