Wayne Couzens handed whole-life sentence

The former Met Police officer who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard has been handed a whole life prison sentence.

On the second day of sentencing, Lord Justice Fulford described the murder of the 33-year-old woman as "grotesque" and the severity of the case so "exceptionally high" as to warrant a whole life order.

He said: "The misuse of a police officer's role such as occurred in this case in order to kidnap, rape and murder a lone victim is of equal seriousness as a murder for the purpose of advancing a political, religious ideological cause."

Lord Justice Fulford said Couzens tried to "minimise his true responsibility" for what had occurred from the moment he spoke to police.

He said Couzens must have realised he "may well need to kill the woman he intended to abduct and rape" but that did not become a "definite outcome" before events began to unfold.

He paid tribute to the dignity of Ms Everard's family, whose victim impact statements in court revealed the human impact of Couzen's "warped, selfish and brutal offending which was both sexual and homicidal".

Couzens shook in the dock as he was sent down to begin his sentence.

Ms Everard was walking home from a friend's house in Clapham when Couzens' used his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card and handcuffs to feign her arrest, the court heard yesterday (Wednesday, September 29).

The 33-year-old Durham University graduate was described as "extremely intelligent, savvy and streetwise" and "not a gullible person", said prosecutor Tom Little QC.

Ms Everard had been strangled with Couzens' police-issue belt by 2:30am the following morning. Couzens then burned her body in a refrigerator in an area of woodland he owned near Ashford, before dumping the remains in a nearby pond.

The devastating impact of Ms Everard's murder was laid bare by her family in court yesterday.

Ms Everard's sister, Katie, said: "You hear from the police that it takes around 2 minutes to strangle someone. And around 8-10 seconds for them to lose consciousness.

"At first there is a sense of relief at hearing that your sister might only have been aware of what was happening for 8-10 seconds.

"But have you put your hands around your neck and tried pushing hard? Eight to ten seconds now seems a long time."

"You disposed of my sister's body like it was rubbish. Fly-tipped her like she meant nothing. She meant everything."

Couzens was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent, after police connected him to a car he hired to abduct Ms Everard, whose remains were found by police dogs on March 10.

After he pleaded guilty to her kidnap, rape and murder in July he was sacked from the force.

His barrister, Jim Sturman QC, today (Thursday, September 20) urged the judge to impose a determinate sentence, which would have meant Couzens was eligible for release in his 80s.

He said: "He was invited to look at the Everards. He could not I am told. He is ashamed.

"What he has done is terrible. He deserves a very lengthy finite term but he did all he could after he was arrested to minimise the wicked harm that he did."

Mr Sturman said Couzens's guilty pleas had saved the Everards "the terror" of what the verdicts would be.

He said his family struggled to reconcile how "the man they loved" who had given "no indication of violence towards the person" could have "behaved in this way".

Mr Sturman added: "He appeared to be living a life as a law-abiding man with a loving family and his colleagues described him as calm and friendly.

"Nothing I say today is at all intended to minimise the horror of what the defendant did that night and after.

"He makes no excuses for his actions, he accepts he will receive, and he deserves, a severe punishment.

"No right-minded person… can feel anything other than revulsion for what he did.

"He does not seek to make excuses for anything that he did and he is filled with self-loathing and abject shame. And he should be."

Sentencing Wayne Couzens for the murder of Sarah Everard, Lord Justice Fulford said the circumstances of the case are "devastating, tragic and wholly brutal".

The judge said Ms Everard was "a wholly blameless victim" of a "grotesque" series of offences which culminated in her death and disposal of her body.

The evidence gathered against Couzens was "unanswerable" and there was "no credible innocent explanation" for it, he said.

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