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Wayne Couzens will never be released from jail over kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard
Published 12:09 30 Sept 2021 BST
Updated 16:38 1 Oct 2021 BST
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Sarah Everard was a 'wholly blameless victim of a grotesque series of circumstances that culminated in her death'
Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens has been sentenced to a whole life order for the kidnap, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard, meaning he will never be released from jail.
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Lord Justice Fulford handed down the most extreme sentence on Thursday following a two-day hearing at London's Old Bailey.
Lord Fulford said the murder was "devasting and "tragic" and carried out in "wholly brutal circumstances".
Everard, who Lord Fulford described as an "intelligent, resourceful, talented and much loved young woman who was "a wholly blameless victim of a grotesque series of circumstances that culminated in her death".
The last moments of Everard's life was "as bleak and agonising as it is possible to imagine" as Couzens carried out "warped, selfish and brutal offending that was both sexual and homicidal", Lord Fulford said.
Couzens "degree of preparation" was to be stressed, Lord Fulford said, given he had spent at least a month travelling to London to research his crimes before going out "hunting a lone female to kidnap and rape".
In the same court, at the same time, the man accused of killing schoolteacher Sabina Nessa also appeared.
Nessa, 28, was killed as she walked five minutes from her house to meet a friend at the pub.
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Following Couzens' sentencing, Harriet Harman called for the Commissioner of Police, Cressida Dick, to resign.
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard how the former armed protection officer used his police warrant card and handcuffs to kidnap Everard under the guise of a Covid stop as she walked home in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3.
A week after she disappeared, Everard’s body was found in a woodland stream in Ashford, Kent, just metres from land owned by Couzens who was arrested on March 9. He admitted the charges in July.
On Wednesday, Everard's mother, Susan told how she was "tormented" by the thought of her daughter spending "her last hours on this earth with the very worst of humanity". Related linksExplore more on these topics:
