UK police officer who murdered woman charged with further sex crimes

LONDON (Reuters) - A former London police officer who was jailed for life last year for raping and murdering a woman in a case that shocked Britain, was charged on Friday with two new counts of exposing himself in incidents which took place before that attack.

Wayne Couzens, 49, whose job was to guard diplomatic premises, abducted marketing executive Sarah Everard on a London street as she walked home from visiting a friend in March last year, using his police credentials to force her into his car.

Her body was later found in woodland about 50 miles (80 km) away in southeast England.

Earlier this year, the Crown Prosecution Service said it had authorised Couzens to be charged with four more suspected offences of exposing himself which had taken place less than a month before he attacked Everard.

It has now authorised two further charges of exposure against Couzens.

"The two alleged offences took place in June 2015 and November 2020," the CPS said.

Couzens will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Sept. 2.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan, editing by Elizabeth Piper)