SHAMI CHAKRABARTI called today for a Stephen Lawrence-style inquiry into police culture around misogyny and violence against women.

The Labour peer said that urgent questions must be answered as to how Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens was allowed to stay in the force. 

Mr Couzens, 48, raped and murdered Ms Everard while serving in the Metropolitan Police, using his position to abduct her as she walked home. 

During his sentencing last week, it emerged that he had faced at least three allegations of indecent exposure, spanning from 2015 to a few days before he murdered Ms Everard, but these reports were either not investigated by police or no action was taken. 

Colleagues also referred to Mr Couzens as “The Rapist” and the Met admitted that he had a reputation for drug use, extreme pornography and other vices. 

Since the court hearing, it has also been revealed that the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating colleagues of Mr Couzens who sent sexist, racist and homophobic messages in a shared WhatsApp group.

The messages were discovered during the investigation of Ms Everard’s murder. 

Writing in the Guardian yesterday, Baroness Chakrabarti, a former shadow attorney general, said: “Surely nothing short of a full, Stephen Lawrence-style judicial inquiry into the specific case and the broader police culture around misogyny and violence against women will do.”

The 1999 Macpherson report into the police handling of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence by white racists six years earlier concluded that the Met was institutionally racist.

The Labour peer also said that the Everard case had showed that police should have fewer powers, not more, as proposed in the Tories’ policing Bill. 

The End Violence Against Women coalition has also accused the Met of having a problem with “institutional sexism and racism.”

Mr Couzens abducted Ms Everard, 33, from a south London street on March 3, showing his police warrant card and using handcuffs. He has been sentenced to a whole-life prison term.

Former and serving police chiefs have also called out a culture of sexism in the force.

Former Met deputy assistant commissioner and Liberal Democrat peer Lord Paddick said that there was “widespread sexism” in the force and called for “culture change.” 

In a bid to regain women’s trust in the force, the Met issued extraordinary advice on what women can do if they suspect that a police officer is not genuine, including hailing a bus, shouting at a passer-by or calling 999.

However, women’s groups dismissed the advice as “absurd.”

End Violence Against Women director Andrea Simon said: “This suggestion fails to recognise the imbalance in power between the public and the police who are able to compel us to do certain things.

“We instead have to ask serious questions about why women are still being charged with having to keep ourselves safe, when the real issue is confronting and addressing harmful sexist and racist policing cultures wherever they are found.”