Wayne Couzens is attempting to appeal his whole-life sentence for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard
(Picture: PA Media)Killer police officer Wayne Couzens, who raped and murdered Sarah Everard, has lost his bid for freedom and should die behind bars, senior judges have ruled.
The former Metropolitan Police officer, 49, was handed a whole life prison term for abducting and killing 33-year-old Ms Everard as she walked home alone through south London last March.
He mounted an appeal, claiming he should be given credit for admitting his crimes and handed a life term with a minimum sentence, giving him a chance of freedom shortly before his 90th birthday.
But Court of Appeal judges, led by Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett of Maldon rejected Couzens pleas in a ruling delivered on Friday.
Judges concluded Couzens’s case had a “unique and defining feature” which warranted a whole life term: “He had used his knowledge and status as a police office to perpetrate his appalling crimes against Ms Everard”.
The court also highlighted “extensive and extreme” aggravating features, including “significant and cold-blooded planning and pre-meditation; the abduction of Ms Everard; the most serious sexual conduct; the mental and physical suffering inflicted on Ms Everard before her death; and the concealment and attempts to destroy Ms Everard’s body”.
“We agree with the judge that having determined there should be a whole life order, given the misuse of Couzens’ role as a police officer and the serious aggravating features of the offending the guilty pleas did not affect the outcome”, they added.
Couzens’ case was considered in a special hearing alongside other notorious killers, including Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes who together killed six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
Attorney General Suella Braverman asked for Tustin, convicted of murder, to be handed a whole life sentence. Judges refused and confirmed her life sentence with a 29-year minimum.
In Hughes’ case, he was originally jailed for 21-years for manslaughter and the court considered a possible increase, ruling the term should be 24 years in prison.
Ian Stewart challenged his whole life sentence for murdering his first wife six years before he went on to murder his fiancé, children’s author Helen Bailey.
Stewart was first convicted of Ms Bailey’s murder, in a plot to inherit her £4 million fortune, and police then re-investigated Diane Stewart’s death in 2010 when he had blamed on an epileptic fit.
The judges concluded his case was not among those exceptionally rare enough to warrant a whole life term, and reduced it to a life sentence with a 35-year minimum.
And construction worker Jordan Monaghan, responsible for the murders of his two children and new partner in Blackburn, was also facing the possibility of a whole life sentence after an Attorney General appeal.
The court increased his minimum term to 48 years but decided not to impose a whole life tariff.
Couzens’ crime shocked the nation, after he kidnapped marketing executive Ms Everard in a bogus arrest using Covid restriction powers on March 3 last year.
The PC, who was part of the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, raped Ms Everard before killing her and dumping the body in woodland in Kent.
Bringing Couzens’ appeal, barrister Jim Sturman QC said a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 to 38 years would be appropriate punishment and pointed out the PC pleaded guilty rather than using his police knowledge and training to mount a “wicked” defence.
He said Couzens initially told police a “ridiculous” story about eastern European gangsters forcing him to kidnap Ms Everard, but he swiftly abandoned that lie.
“You can imagine the additional horror that would have been inflicted on Sarah Everard’s loved ones, sitting through a trial, hoping upon hoping that he didn’t pull the wool over the jury’s eyes”, he said.
Mr Sturman compared Couzens with serial killer Levi Bellfield, who sadistically put his victims’ families through additional torture in court, or MP killer Ali Harbi Ali, who openly admitted having no remorse or regrets.
Mr Sturman argued sentencing judge Lord Justice Fulford had wrongly assessed Couzens as having “no remorse”.
“Not only did he plead guilty before much of the evidence had been served, he indicated an admission of guilt before the pathology evidence was served”, he said.
“He didn’t play the system the way many police officers have over the years.”
However prosecutor Tom Little QC told the court the murder of Ms Everard amounted to a “fundamental attack on our democratic way of life” and deserved a “wholly exceptional” sentence.
“A police officer is in a uniquely powerful position, able to carry out an arrest alone on one of London’s busiest arterial roads during a period of lockdown”, he said.
The Court of Appeal upheld Couzens’ whole life order, meaning he will never be given the chance to apply for parole.
