Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens has been sentenced to a whole life order for the kidnap, murder and rape of Sarah Everard, meaning he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The sentence was handed down by Lord Justice Fulford at the Old Bailey today (September 30).
Ms Everard, a 33-year-old marketing manager from London, was abducted on March 3 as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham.
Her body was discovered in a woodland area in Ashford, Kent two days later after she was reported missing.
On March 9 Couzens, 48, was arrested on suspicion of kidnap in connection to Sarah’s disappearance, and was further arrested on suspicion of murder and a separate allegation of indecent exposure. He was then charged on March 12.
Her cause of death was later revealed as compression of the neck.
Couzens had served in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command unit of the Metropolitan Police but was not on duty at the time of Ms Everard’s disappearance. He was fired by the Met Police after he pleaded guilty to the Murder of Ms Everard in July.
In the court hearing yesterday it was revealed Couzens staged a false arrest using Covid laws to lure Ms Everard off the street, issuing a Met Police warrant card and handcuffs to abduct her. He then drove Everard to an area near Dover in Kent where he raped and killed her.
It also emerged Couzens burned her body in a refrigerator before dumping her remains in a pond near Ashford, Kent.
During the sentencing, Lord Justice Fulford said said Sarah Everard was “a wholly blameless victim of a grotesquely executed series of offences that culminated in her death and the disposal of her body”.
He added: “She was simply walking home mid evening having visited a friend during the Covid pandemic.
“It is most likely he suggested to Sarah Everard that she had breached the restrictions on movement that were being enforced during that stage of the pandemic.”
He said he has no doubt that Couzens “used his position as a police officer to coerce her under false pretence into the car he hired”.
Couzens will now spend the rest of his life in prison.