Last week, Wayne Couzens was sentenced to 19 months for three incidents of indecent exposure: in Kent, in woodland and at a McDonald's between November 2020 and February 2021. The ex-Met Police Officer is already serving a whole-life term for the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021.
Harrowingly, CCTV footage shown in court, from the McDonald's in Swanley, clearly shows Couzens number plate AF12XXW. A number plate which, just three days before the murder of Sarah, was reported to the police (alongside his credit card details). One of the McDonald's workers who he exposed himself to told the court: "I had no-one contact me or ask for a statement. It was only after Sarah's murder that I became involved. If he had been held accountable when we had reported the crime, we could have saved Sarah."
The judge said that this fuelled the "dangerous belief in his invincibility; his power sexually to dominate and abuse women without being stopped".
Another of his victims, a female cyclist from Kent, reported Couzens indecent exposure in 2015 but no action was taken by the police at the time. She told the court: “I remember vividly being concerned that somebody who could expose themselves to a stranger in such an intimidating way could go on to commit much more serious acts. This is what happened. There were opportunities to identify you and they were not taken. I did not feel that, when I reported your crime, it was taken as seriously as I felt that it should have been. The horror of what happened will remain with me for the rest of my life.”
This has been a watershed case on multiple levels. It’s shown how violence against women and girls is, systemically, not taken seriously by the Met Police. It’s shown an abuse of power by those who should be protecting. It’s also shown, with this most recent development, a wider problem with how society diminishes the significance of exposure crimes.
It’s terrifying how normalised cases of ‘flashing’ are. I was a preteen the first time a man masturbated in front of me on public transport. I was on the tube, with only a handful of other people in the carriage: they looked on, saying nothing, as he touched himself and intimidated me by making intense eye contact. I got off at the next stop, and waited on the platform until my heart had stopped racing, and until I was sure he hadn’t followed me.
I remember talking about it with friends and family, and it being dismissed from all angles. I remember someone saying: “It’s a rite of passage growing up in a city”. For a long time, I thought this was a normal part of life; that older men would routinely flash me – probably on a bus or tube – and it never crossed my mind to report them. Until I was older, and understood that this was not only unacceptable, but illegal. I reported being flashed and harassed by a man on the overground five years ago (TFL had a special department and number by this point). The specialist officers, covering harassment on public transport, said to me: “It’s hard to miss you in an outfit like that,” when I went to an office to write up a statement and review CCTV footage. The footage was blurred and obstructed. I gave up.
My experience is not unique. Kitty Underhill, a model and speaker, spoke to me about an indecent exposure crime she was the victim of: “I was flashed when I was around 10/11 years old. I had some friends round for a sleepover but we decided to go to my nearest shop (less than a 10 minute walk away) to pick up ice cream. On the way over, an older man started following us. I felt him getting closer so I got my friends and I to cross the road. Just as we did so, he emerged from a parked white van and flashed us. We sprinted as fast as we could to the shop. I called my Dad to come pick us up and he took us home. He scoured the area trying to find him but didn’t have any luck.”
Kitty, like me, didn’t realise at that age that this was a crime. “It didn’t occur to me that that could be something to report.” She added that “after it happened we never spoke about it. I only remember it every now and again and I think it has caused a bit of underlying anxiety around my safety with cis men. Even now, it takes a lot for me to feel at ease with a cis man because I feel like the experience has infiltrated my subconscious; so whilst I wasn’t conscious of the effect it had on me at the time, it still feels like something that underpins my experience navigating the world.”
Almost every woman I know has been the victim of ‘flashing’. It’s also clear to me, anecdotally and through personal experience, that most women would not consider reporting it to the police.
Sydney, 31, was the victim of an indecent exposure crime in the lobby of her building. A man had pushed his way in, and when she tried to avoid getting in the lift with him, he walked close to her and pulled his pants down. She closed her eyes, frozen in panic. Some time later, she tells me he “just started walking away, pants still down, and got into an elevator”. The incident has impacted her mental health. “My heart was racing as I was remembering the situation. Unfortunately, just a couple years prior to the incident, my boyfriend at the time brutally assaulted me in an act of domestic violence. My neighbours heard the attack and called the police, which I genuinely believe saved my life. As a result of the assault (and just the other lived experiences of being a woman) I had a pretty strong distrust and fear of men, which then only increased even further following this incident. I contemplated quitting my job because I feared being out late at night, and also because now the pervy comments or lecherous stares from male patrons at the bar that I used to be able to brush off just made my skin crawl. I like to think that as the time has passed it all has less of an impact on me mentally, but I know that it’s still there and will make itself known sometimes.”
Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Ministry of Justice data for England and Wales revealed that 10,775 indecent exposure cases were logged by police in 2020, but just 594 suspects were taken to court. The number of actual indecent exposure cases are likely significantly higher. Researching into this crime, I’m struck at the fact almost every woman I know has been the victim of ‘flashing’. It’s also clear to me, anecdotally and through personal experience, that most women would not consider reporting it to the police. We’ve internalised so much misogyny: that the police won’t believe us, that we’ll be blamed, that they’ll say we’re overreacting, that it’ll be chalked up as hysteria. We’ve internalised all this, because it’s what has prevailed in society. The case of Wayne Couzens is a symbol of this fear and has just cemented it further. His victims’ bravery, to speak up and draw the necessary conclusions, has been an antidote.
GLAMOUR asked The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for comment. “The awful truth appears to be that this man was following a path of escalating sexual violence," he said. "He could and should have been stopped before his fatal attack on Sarah Everard. This case underlines the vital need to treat every case of violence against women and girls in a timely and professional manner and I’m determined to support and hold the police to account to ensure that nothing like this is ever allowed to happen again.”
Sadiq added: “There is clearly an issue with the way in which indecent exposure is currently dealt with throughout the criminal justice system – from policing, to courts, to sentencing. This needs to be urgently reviewed to better safeguard the public – particularly women and girls – from perpetrators who we know can go on to commit further offences. I am determined to do everything I can to support the new Commissioner to raise standards, improve the care victims receive, and identify and rid the Met of those individuals who are not fit to serve the people of our city, in order to build a safer London for everyone.”
It’s exhausting to have to point out what victims of indecent exposure know inherently to be true. We know in our gut that someone who is able to intimidate and expose themselves in such a way is dangerous. We know that crimes like flashing are gateway offences to more serious violence against women and girls. We know that, even if it’s not a gateway, it is still much more serious than the police and society let us believe. We shrink ourselves in public, avoid certain routes home, and live in fear of violence by men against us. And none of it is ever enough. We are still not safe, we are still not taken seriously, we are still not afforded the basic human right of being able to exist in the world without being harassed and sexualised against our will.
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