Sarah Everard murder: ex-British police officer Wayne Couzens sentenced to whole life order
- The former officer had pleaded guilty to murdering, raping and kidnapping the 33-year-old London woman while she was walking home in March
- The case shocked the country and sparked protests over male violence towards women
Wayne Couzens, 48, a serving London officer who had guarded diplomatic premises, had used his position to stop Everard, the Old Bailey court heard.
Couzens forced Everard, 33, into a hire car as she walked home after visiting a friend in south London on March 3. Her body was found in woodland around 80km (50 miles) away in southeast England. A postmortem concluded she had died as a result of compression of the neck.
His whole life sentence means he has no chance of parole.
“Nothing can make things better, nothing can bring Sarah back, but knowing he will be imprisoned forever brings some relief,” Everard’s family said in a statement.
“Wayne Couzens held a position of trust as a police officer and we are outraged and sickened that he abused this trust in order to lure Sarah to her death.”