'Officer Naughty' who bungled Wayne Couzens probe complains of hate messages

27 May 2023 , 07:37

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Former Met Police officer Samantha Lee says she has received hundreds of hate messages (Image: bbc.co.uk)

An ex-Met Police officer who bungled an investigation into Wayne Couzens before he murdered Sarah Everard has complained of hate messages.

Samantha Lee - who goes by 'Officer Naughty' on OnlyFans - was last week found guilty of gross misconduct over her probe into indecent exposure by the killer cop.

The 29-year-old resigned from the force after being suspended over her account on the subscription porn site but was told at the hearing she would have been sacked anyway as a result of the judgement.

She is now banned from serving as a police officer.

It comes after she moaned during her hearing about press photos taken of her which she claimed had been doctored to make her look bad.

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Lee, from Bromley, south east London, has since claimed she has been subjected to hundreds of vile messages accusing her of having blood on her hands.

She said she has been made a "scapegoat" for her former employer's failings over Couzens.

An inquiry is set to examine the circumstances leading up to Ms Everad's kidnap, rape and murder by the serving officer in March 2021.

Lee says she's been made a 'scapegoat' for the Met's failings (bbc.co.uk)

Lee told BBC's Newsnight: "I think I'm seen as this horrendous, awful person that has let an absolutely heinous crime take place. And I'm being looked at as if I'm just as guilty as what Couzens is.

"But literally, there was nothing that I could have done that would have changed the outcome."

She added: "I don't want any sympathy at all. All I want is people just to understand that there is nothing that I could have done."

Lee said she has become the public focus of the probe into the force's action and that it's been a case of going "in at the bottom rather than going up higher".

Lee goes by 'Officer Naughty' on OnlyFans

She resigned from the force after being suspended over her account on the subscription site

The Met said her disciplinary hearing was not in relation to her handling of the investigation into Couzens but her "honesty and integrity" during it.

She said she has reported some of the most abusive messages she's received to police, including allegedly being told she should have been kidnapped and murdered rather than Ms Everard.

Lee said the "only person" to blame for the 33-year-old marketing executive's death is Couzens himself.

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The former parliamentary guard, 50, whose nickname among colleagues was 'The Rapist', snatched Ms Everard off the street near Brixton Hill, South London, on March 3, 2021.

During her hearing Lee claimed press photos of her were doctored

Lee outside Palestra House in Southwark where the hearing took place (PA)

Couzens exposed himself to staff at a McDonald's in Swanley, Kent, on February 14 and 27, the same year.

He was sentenced to 19 months in prison after admitting three counts of indecent exposure earlier this year.

He was already serving life behind bars for his offences relating to Ms Everard.

Lee was deemed to have failed to make the "correct investigative inquiries" when she went to the McDonald's branch to speak to staff before Couzens committed murder.

Sarah Everard was murdered in March 2021 (PA)

The manager told the hearing he showed her CCTV footage of Couzens' number plate, as well as receipts showing the last four digits of his payment card.

When Lee had been questioned she lied that he had told her the footage had been deleted in an effort to cover up her failings.

At the time, however, carrying out such checks would not have shown whether the vehicle was owned by an officer.

She also claims the force was treating indecent exposure as a "low level" offence and she wasn't asked to investigate straight away.

Wayne Couzens snatched Ms Everard off the street as she walked home (Kent Messenger / SWNS)

During her BBC interview, she remained adamant she had not seen CCTV footage.

She claims the manager may have shown it to another officer - though admits her own efforts could have been "more thorough".

Lee added that finding out Couzens was a police officer was "traumatising".

She also referred to an indecent exposure incident from 2015 linked to Couzens that is yet to be investigated by Kent Police.

A CCTV grab of Couzens' car at the McDonald's (PA)

In a statement issued by the Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy following the hearing, he said Lee's actions "fell below the professional standards expected of her".

"The purpose of the gross misconduct hearing was not to decide whether Wayne Couzens' future offending could have been prevented."

He added: "Fundamentally, I am sorry that Couzens was not arrested before he went on to murder Sarah Everard and we continue to think of her loved ones.

"We know that in recent years the Met's response to violence against women and girls has not been good enough. We are working hard with survivors, communities and partners to improve our response and rebuild trust."

Ryan Merrifield