Police officer was violent rapist who attacked women over 14 years

Couzens is a former Metropolitan Police officer serving a whole-life sentence for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

He abused his police role to stage a fake arrest, highlighting severe vetting failures and multiple failed opportunities to uncover the risk he posed.

ACC Ratcliff said the comparison was unhelpful and that no red flags were missed.

She said: “At this stage, we’ve got no evidence to suggest [missed red flags] is the case, but we absolutely keep that under review because one of the things that we have to do from inquiries of this nature is make sure that we capture and we take on board the lessons learned.”

The assistant chief constable insisted the vetting landscape in Police Scotland is “markedly different” to when Greer joined Strathclyde Police in 2009, and that Greer would not pass vetting checks today.

There are still 1,000s of images recovered from Greer’s devices that have to be sifted through, and it is understood he used multiple pseudonyms and phones to carry out his sexual transactions.

Specialist officers have been drafted in from other units to bolster the anti-corruption unit, including from the major incident team, and the inquiry is expected to take many months.

Greer will never be brought to justice but police say they are determined to establish the full picture of his offending.

ACC Ratcliff said: “If there is anyone who believes that they may have been a victim of Alan Greer, we would urge them to have the courage and confidence to come forward and tell us about it.

“They can be assured that we will listen, and that we will investigate, and we will do our best to make sure that they get the support that they need going forward.”

Production/additional reporting: Kevin Anderson and Carla Basu

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