PA MediaThe BBC has announced a "respectful" two-part factual drama on the murder of Sarah Everard.
Everard was abducted, raped and killed by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in south London on 3 March 2021.
He tricked her into thinking she could be arrested for breaking Covid lockdown rules as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham.
The currently untitled series will examine the circumstances that allowed a sex offender to become, and remain, a police officer.
'Sensitivity and care'
In 2023, Couzens admitted three counts of indecent exposure, one of which he committed four days before killing Everard.
He is serving a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of the 33-year-old.
The series will be made by award-winning writer Jeff Pope who has also produced other dramas based on real-life crime including Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and Little Boy Blue, about the 2007 murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool.
Pope said the key question asked by his drama is how Couzens was still a serving officer "after committing numerous sexual offences over a long period of time".
The drama will "explore how, over many years and across his career in different police forces, significant evidence of sexual offending was repeatedly dismissed and poor vetting and a lack of training and motivation meant vital evidence against him was never collected," according to the BBC.
It will also consider the "impact these failings have had on public confidence in policing, particularly in light of the epidemic of violence against women and girls".
Everard's murder sparked a national outcry and spurred on many women to share their experiences of feeling unsafe on the streets.
The BBC says the show will be "handled with sensitivity and respect" and the production team are in contact with Everard's family.
Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, says: "Drama has a unique ability to sensitively and respectfully tackle real life subjects and this series will explore the impact of this horrific crime, the misogyny and failings from within the Met Police and what lessons can be learnt".
She adds that Pope will "treat this with the utmost care, helping to ensure that the issues that led to Sarah Everard's murder remain in the public consciousness for years to come, whilst continuing to hold the police to account."
