A serving London police officer handcuffed a woman on the pretext that she broke COVID-19 lockdown rules before he kidnapped and killed her, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Wayne Couzens, 48, appeared at London's Central Criminal Court to be sentenced after he admitted the abduction, rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who disappeared while walking home from visiting a friend in south London on March 3.

The case has sparked national outrage and triggered large-scale protests denouncing violence against women and a lack of police protection.

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Couzens sat in a packed courtroom with his head bowed as members of Everard's family listened to prosecutor Tom Little open his case.

Little said Couzens wore his police belt with handcuffs and used his police identification when he detained Everard "by fraud." He had also rented a car as part of his plan, the prosecutor argued.

There was "no credible alternative explanation for his need to hire a car other than to use that car to kidnap and rape a lone woman," Little said.

"His movements were consistent with the defendant looking for, or hunting for, a lone young female to kidnap and rape, which is precisely what he did," the prosecutor argued.

Britain's government said in the wake of Everard's killing that it would invest millions of pounds more in its "Safer Streets" fund to put more officers on the streets and improve street lighting and closed-circuit television facilities to protect women and girls. 

The killing of 28-year-old primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, who was found dead in a London park earlier this month, has put renewed focus on the safety of women.

Ahead of Wednesday's court hearing in the Couzens case, the Metropolitan Police department said it was "sickened, angered and devastated by this man's crimes, which betray everything we stand for." The force said it wouldn't further comment until the hearing is over.

A judge is expected to sentence Couzens, who was dismissed from the force, on Thursday.