国际英语新闻:London police officer appears in court after being charged with murder of woman

LONDON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A serving Metropolitan police officer on Saturday appeared in court in London after being charged with the kidnap and murder of a 33-year-old woman.

Wayne Couzens, 48, was arrested on Tuesday after Sarah Everard, a marketing executive, went missing while walking home from a friend's apartment in south London on March 3.

Everard's remains were found on Wednesday in an area of woodland in Kent, around 50 miles (about 80.47 kilometers) away in southeast England, the court heard Saturday.

Couzens arrived at the central London court at 10 a.m. (1000 GMT) in a large blue police van, stepping into the dock around 10.30 a.m. (1030 GMT), according to the Evening Standard newspaper.

He wore a grey tracksuit and appeared to have a red wound on the top of his forehead, the newspaper reported.

Couzens spoke only to confirm his name and personal details, sitting between two plain clothes officers in the dock.

Couzens remains in police custody and will appear in court again on March 16.

According to local media reports, Couzens joined London's Metropolitan Police in 2018 and guarded foreign embassies before his arrest.

Everard's death has caused widespread concern in Britain about women's safety, with many women and girls sharing stories online of their own traumatic experiences.

Data from the British Office for National Statistics showed that in the past decade till March 2020, there were 4,493 male victims of killings and 2,075 female victims (31 percent) in England and Wales, and more than nine out of 10 killers were men.