Depraved Wayne Couzens portrayed himself as a caring family man and animal lover after burning Sarah Everard’s body in woods, a court has heard.

The 48-year-old married father-of-two, from Deal in Kent, abducted Ms Everard in a hire car as she walked home in south London on the evening of March 3.

In the early hours of the next morning, he raped and murdered her in a remote rural area near Dover, then made attempts to dispose of her body in Hoads Wood, near Ashford, where he owned land.

The Old Bailey heard how a driver glimpsed a large orange and yellow flame in the woods with a white object next to it on March 5.

The defendant took his family on a family trip to the very woods where earlier he had left Sarah Everard's body.

The sighting was consistent with the spot where Couzens burnt Ms Everard’s body, clothes and possessions in a fridge.

Later that afternoon, Couzens made a bizarre phone call to a vet about his dog Maddy’s “separation anxiety”.

In the call played in court, he said he wanted to see the vet to discuss her “issues”.

He said: “I think she is suffering from separation anxiety and I have tried absolutely everything, given her puzzles, we take her for walks every single day.”

He said that his neighbours had told him the pet “barks and howls every day” then “wees and is shaking” when the family return home.

The same afternoon, Couzens bought builders bags which he used to move Ms Everard’s heavily burnt remains to the pond where she was eventually found.

On March 7 – two days before his arrest – Couzens took his wife and children on a family trip to Hoads Wood.

Prosecutor Tom Little QC said he withdrew cash at the same Dover service station he had visited shortly after the rape and murder of his victim.

Mr Little said: “It follows that the defendant took his family on a family trip to the very woods where earlier he had left Sarah Everard’s body, then returned to burn it and then returned again to move it to hide it.”

He added that Couzens even allowed his children to play in relatively close proximity to where Ms Everard’s body had been dumped in the pond.

The court heard that Couzens had finished a 12-hour shift with the Metropolitan Police before he picked up the hire car which he used to kidnap Ms Everard under the guise of arresting her for breaking lockdown rules.

During his five days’ leave, he told his work supervisor that he felt unable to carry firearms and felt stressed over a pay dispute.

Police identified Couzens through the hire car and quickly established he was a serving police officer.
Having gone to his home, officers did not move in to arrest him for two hours.

In the meantime, he wiped his phone and later in police interview concocted a false story about being “leant” on by a gang to pick up girls.