A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been arrested in connection with Sarah Everard’s disappearance. The force is calling it “a serious and significant development”.
Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave spoke to journalists outside Scotland Yard on Wednesday 10 March. He said investigators “really hope” that the 33-year-old is still alive.
Arrest
In an unusual step, the force hasn’t revealed what the officer has been arrested for. And Ephgrave wouldn’t say whether the person knows Everard.
The officer wasn’t on duty at the time of Sarah’s disappearance. He was arrested on the evening of Tuesday 9 March along with a woman who’s been held on suspicion of assisting an offender. The arrest took place at an address in Kent.
Ephgrave said:
This is a serious and significant development in our search for Sarah and the fact that the man who has been arrested is a serving Metropolitan Police officer is both shocking and deeply disturbing.
Appeals for information
Ephgrave told reporters that detectives are working “at all speed” to find out what has happened to Everard. And he repeated appeals for members of the public to come forward with information.
Turning to the 33-year-old’s family, who along with her friends have issued desperate appeals for help via social media, he said:
As a father myself of four young women I can only imagine the anguish that Sarah’s family are feeling at this very very difficult time.
The Met Police tweeted the development but did not mention that the man they arrested was a police officer:
https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/1369437837813223432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Met Police said they had received more than 120 calls from the public and had visited 750 homes in the area as part of the investigation.
