SENTENCED TO LIFE
Will Sarah Everard murderer Wayne Couzens ever be eligible for parole?
A look at the rare sentence the killer was handed in 2021
WAYNE COUZENS pleaded guilty to the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard after abducting the young woman as she walked home in south London.
The former Met Police constable became the first ever British cop to be given the harshest sentence a judge can impose as he was jailed for his crimes.
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Is Wayne Couzens eligible for parole?
In September 2021, Couzens was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole-life order.
He is unlikely to be offered parole due to the conditions of this sentence.
Prisoners who are sentenced to a whole-life order, like Couzens, must serve their time without the possibility of parole.
This sentence can only be issued to those who committed their crimes when they were over the age of 21.
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Less then 70 criminals in the UK have had this sentence imposed.
Couzens was told at his sentencing that he would die in prison, though this doesn't happen in every whole-life order case.
In exceptional circumstances, such as if a prisoner is of a great age or in ill health, the Home Secretary may grant release.
The Court of Appeal can also overturn whole-life orders.
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In October 2021 it was reported that Couzens had lodged an appeal against his sentence.
His lawyers argued he deserved "decades in jail" but said a whole-life term was excessive.
Moment Wayne Couzens drives into McDonald's where he flashed staff before Sarah Everard's murder as sick texts revealed
The appeal was rejected by the Court of Appeal in July 2022.
Lord Burnett said at the time: "This was, as the judge said, warped, selfish and brutal offending, which was both sexual and homicidal.
"It was a case with unique and extreme aggravating features.
"Chief amongst these, as the judge correctly identified, was the grotesque misuse by Couzens of his position as a police officer, with all that connoted, to facilitate Ms Everard's kidnap, rape and murder.
"We agree with the observations of the judge about the unique position of the police, the critical importance of their role and the critical trust that the public repose in them."
How long is Wayne Couzens' sentence?
Couzens was sentenced to life imprisonment on September 30, 2021 after he pleaded guilty to the murder of Sarah Everard.
He had previously admitted to her kidnapping and rape.
Sarah disappeared after leaving a friend's house in Clapham, South London, on the evening of March 3, 2021.
Her boyfriend reported her missing on March 4 and police launched a huge search to find her but her body was discovered in a woodland a week after she disappeared.
Post-mortem results revealed that Sarah died from compression to the neck.
Sarah Everard was a wholly blameless victim of a grotesquely executed series of circumstances that culminated in her death and the disposal of her body. She was simply walking home.
Lord Justice Fulford
Lord Justice Fulford imposed the rare whole-life order on Couzens as he had abused his position as a police officer.
The judge 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.
"Sarah Everard was a wholly blameless victim of a grotesquely executed series of circumstances that culminated in her death and the disposal of her body. She was simply walking home."
Couzens was later sentenced to an additional 19 months in prison in March 2023 after pleading guilty to three indecent exposure offences.
Two of the incidents took place at a McDonald's in Kent and saw Couzens pulling his trousers down whilst paying for his food.
PERFORMED SEX ACT
One offence took place on February 14, 2021, and the other on February 27, just days before Sarah's murder.
McDonald's staff were left "shaken, upset and angry" over the incidents.
The third indecent exposure offence took place on November 13, 2020.
Couzens, who was on duty at the time, stepped out of a wooded area naked in his hometown of Deal and performed a sex act on himself as a female cycled past.
A report released in February 2024 revealed that Couzens had tried to kidnap a woman at knifepoint and sexually assaulted a young girl before he murdered Sarah.
The dossier also stated that the killer had raped two women but went undetected by at least three police forces.
The complainants came forward following his arrest for Sarah's murder.
Couzens should never have been a police officer according to the landmark Angiolini Inquiry report.
There were a series of "red flag" opportunities that could have seen him kicked out of the force and stopped his future offending but these were also missed, the report said.
Where is Wayne Couzens in prison?
Couzens is serving his whole-life sentence at HMP Frankland in Durham.
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He had previously been locked up at HMP Belmarsh in London.
Belmarsh has also housed Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi and Lee Rigby machete terrorist Michael Adebolajo.
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