LONDON (AP) – A police officer was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder in connection with a missing woman in London last week, Britain’s Metropolitan Police said. The force said Wednesday that the man being a police officer on duty is “shocking and deeply disturbing”
The force said the man, who is in his 40s, was arrested Tuesday night in Kent, south-east London, as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive who disappeared. while walking home from a friend’s apartment in south London on March 3rd.
Police said the suspect was an officer in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and was responsible for patrolling diplomatic facilities.
He was first arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and, on Wednesday, “was arrested again on suspicion of murder and a separate allegation of indecent exposure”.
The officer was not on duty at the time of Everard’s disappearance. The police did not say whether he knew Everard. The force said he was arrested with a woman in her 30s who was suspected of helping a criminal. Both suspects remained in custody.
“This is a serious and significant development in our search for Sarah and the fact that the man who was arrested is a Metropolitan Police officer on duty is shocking and deeply disturbing,” said assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave.
Detectives were searching locations in London and a house and woods in Kent after the arrest of the police and the woman. The policeman was taken into custody at a London police station.