LONDON (AP) – A police officer has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder in connection with a woman who went missing in London last week, British metropolitan police said. The force said Wednesday that the fact that the man is a police officer on duty is “shocking and deeply disturbing.”
The force said the man, who is in his forties, was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Kent, south-east London, as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Sarah Everard, an executive at 33-year-old marketer who disappeared when he was walking home from a friend’s apartment in south London on March 3rd.
Police said the suspect was an official of the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and was responsible for patrolling diplomatic premises.
He was first arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and on Wednesday was “further arrested on suspicion of murder and a separate complaint of indecent exposure.”
The officer was not on duty at the time of Everard’s disappearance. Police did not say if he knew Everard. The force said he was arrested along with a 30-year-old woman, who was detained on suspicion of assisting a criminal. The two suspects remained in custody.
“This is an important and significant fact in our search for Sarah and the fact that the man who has been arrested is a metropolitan police officer is both shocking and deeply disturbing,” said Deputy Commissioner Nick Ephgrave.
Detectives searched locations in London and a house and forest in Kent after the arrest of the agent and the woman. The officer has been detained at a London police station.