Will Mellor says Sarah Everard’s murder made him ‘physically sick’ ahead of new show Cops Who Kill

Line of Duty star Will Mellor has described feeling ‘physically sick’ when he thinks about the murder of Sarah Everard by Met Police killer Wayne Couzens – as he prepares to air a new show aimed at investigating some of the most coldblooded killers in uniform.

The actor has spoken out about the loss of trust in UK police and will investigate five of the most shocking murders committed by serving police officers in recent years in his upcoming series, Cops Who Kill.

‘The thought of how terrified Sarah must have been makes me feel physically sick. The pure horror of what was to come must have dawned on her as they drove,’ Mellor told The Mirror.

The 46-year-old is now on a mission to learn more about killer officers and try and prevent such cases from ever happening again.

As well as Couzens, he also looks into wife-killer Inspector Darren McKie and four other equally horrific cases – where those paid to keep the public safe became monsters.

Mellor said the death of Sarah Everard in March 2021 makes him feel ‘physically sick’

Monster killer Wayne Couzens was handed a whole life order for his crime, meaning he will never set foot outside of prison in his lifetime

Mellor said: ‘I think there’s been a lot brushed under the carpet and lives have been lost because of that.’

Sarah Everard was stopped while walking home in Clapham, London by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens in March 2021.

He used his real police handcuffs and warrant card to convince her she was being arrested and placed her in his car, abducting her directly off the street.

He then drove her to a secluded spot, changed vehicles, raped her, murdered her and then attempted to dispose of her remains.

Couzens then returned home to his wife and children as if nothing had happened.

The common thread connecting all five cases Mellor will examine is the normality with which the murderers then continued on with their lives.

Inspector Darren McKie of Greater Manchester Police was found guilty in 2018 of strangling his wife Leanne to death, before dumping her body in a nearby lake.

He then went and picked his children up from school and invited friends round for dinner.

PC Karl Bluestone, of Kent Police, was a domestic abuser who was arrested in June 1999 after injuring one of his four children when he threw a cup across the room.

Will Mellor (pictured) played a corrupt police officer in TV series Line of Duty

Inspector Darren McKie of Greater Manchester Police was found guilty in 2018 of strangling his wife Leanne (image) to death

Policeman Karl Bluestone (image) had a track record of domestic violence. He murdered his wife and two of his four children, as well as injuring the remaining two, before taking his own life

Two years later, in August 2001, Bluestone killed his wife Jill and two of their children Henry, three, and Chandler, 18 months, before taking his own life.

The two elder children both survived. The inquest heard Bluestone launched the attack after his wife told him she was leaving him with their children after years of domestic abuse.

In 1993, Sergeant Steven Jones murdered his wife with a single blow to the head, after he began an affair with a teenage barmaid. 

He then staged a crime scene in an attempt to make it look like a traffic accident.

Finally retired police officer Keith Farquharson murdered his wife in 2019.

He always maintained her death was an accident after a struggle in bed – having previously lied and claimed he was in the shower when he heard a noise and found his wife on the floor. 

Mellor said: ‘The job attracts narcissists and control freaks. We’ve got to try to stop letting these people slip through the net.

‘One policeman out there that’s power-hungry and enjoys lording it over and using his power on innocent people, that’s one too many.

Mellor added he could not fathom how killers could continue with their lives in such a normal way after killing someone in cold blood.

‘I’d panic,’ he told the paper.