WAYNE COUZENS SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR MURDER OF SARAH EVERARD IN LONDON
Met Police officer Wayne Couzens has received a whole-life prison sentence for the murder of Sarah Everard, a case that ignited national outrage and prompted calls for increased action against violence towards women.Couzens admitted to kidnapping, raping, and murdering the 33-year-old marketing executive during a court appearance several months prior, but it was only at sentencing that the full scope of his crimes was disclosed.
Sarah Everard was walking home from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, around 21:30 BST on March 3 when she was abducted.
Her attacker was random, yet the attack was meticulously planned.
Lord Justice Fulford noted during sentencing that Couzens’s actions involved "significant planning and premeditation," highlighting his long-standing intent to commit a violent sexual assault and coerce a victim into his custody.
Couzens traveled from his home in Deal, Kent, to London for over a month to research how best to execute his crime.
A few days before the attack, he booked a hire car for the abduction and purchased self-adhesive film, advertised on Amazon as a carpet protector.
After finishing a 12-hour shift at the US embassy, Couzens, employed as a parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, went out with the intent to target a lone, young woman.
Court evidence revealed Couzens used his knowledge from Covid patrols and his police warrant card to falsely arrest Sarah under the guise of enforcing coronavirus regulations.
The 48-year-old, who had been part of the police since 2002, handcuffed her, then forced her into his car and drove off.
Witnesses saw the kidnapping but believed he was executing a legitimate arrest, given his police credentials.
The entire abduction lasted less than five minutes.
Couzens then drove to Dover, Kent, where he transferred Sarah into his personal vehicle, moving to a remote rural area nearby.
There, he raped and murdered her by strangulation with his police belt.
By 02:31, he had left the scene and was seen at a service station purchasing drinks.
He visited the location where her body was dumped twice, leaving just before dawn.
The following day, as the search for Sarah intensified, Couzens bought petrol, which he used to burn her body inside a fridge, and purchased green rubble bags to dispose of her remains in a pond near his land in Hoads Wood, Ashford.
A week after her disappearance, her body was recovered from a woodland stream close to Couzens’s property.
Despite his heinous acts, Couzens returned to everyday activities, including calling a vet about his dog and later taking his wife and children on a trip to the woods where he had burned her body.
On March 8, he called in sick from work; the next day, he was arrested at his home in Deal.
During a brief police interview, he provided false stories, claiming he had been threatened by an Eastern European gang and that he had kidnapped Sarah and handed her over to three men in a van while she was alive and uninjured.
However, after her body was found so close to land owned by Couzens, he was charged.
He was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police, which continues to face scrutiny over potential missed opportunities to prevent his predatory behavior.
Following Sarah’s murder, the police watchdog announced it was investigating alleged failures by the Met to follow up on two indecent exposure incidents linked to Couzens in February.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is also examining alleged lapses by Kent Police in relation to a flashing incident from 2015.
Couzens transferred to the Metropolitan Police in 2018, coming from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary where he served since 2011.
Two years later, he joined the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command as an authorized firearms officer at diplomatic premises around central London.
In July, Couzens pleaded guilty to murder via video from Belmarsh high-security jail at the Old Bailey.
He returned to court in person for a two-day sentencing hearing, facing the family of Sarah Everard — her parents and sister.
Her father, Jeremy, told him he could never forgive him as he looked at Couzens.
Her mother, Susan, expressed her torment, describing the lingering memories of her daughter’s suffering and her pain over her burning body, which she called "the final insult," adding, "It meant we could never again see her sweet face and never say goodbye.
Our lives will never be the same.
We should be a family of five, but now we are four.
Her death leaves a yawning chasm in our lives that cannot be filled."
