High-profile murderers, including Wayne Couzens, have lodged appeals with the UK’s Court of Appeal against whole-life sentences they are currently serving. Couzens was sentenced in 2021 after pleading guilty to the rape, kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard. Another appellant, Ian Stewart, was found guilty at trial in 2017 for the murder of his fiancee, popular children’s author Helen Bailey and subsequently, in 2022, for the murder of his wife Diane Stewart.
Whole-life sentences are rare in the UK. There are currently only 64 prisoners serving a sentence of this nature. A whole-life sentence differs from a life sentence in that there is no minimum term that must be served before parole can be considered. For whole lifers, parole will only be ever considered in very exceptional circumstances (for example, serious ill health).
The lawfulness of whole-life sentences was challenged in 2012. The Court of Appeal upheld that they do not breach human rights, while cautioning that they should be reserved for only the most exceptionally serious offences.
