Sarah Everard case: Ex-UK police officer Wayne Couzens sentenced to life imprisonment

Former British police officer Wayne Couzens on September 30 was sent to spend life in prison for the kidnap, rape & murder of Sarah Everard. As per The Guardian report, the judge said that his crime was as serious as a terrorist atrocity mainly because he abused his powers as a police officer. The former Metropolitan police officer used his warrant card and handcuffs to get the 33-year-old into his car when she was walking home in south London during the peak of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in March 2020. 

Reportedly, Couzens used the pretext of Coronavirus lockdown to stop Everard on her way home before driving her to Kent. He then strangled the woman with his police belt and burnt her body. The Sarah Everard case in the UK triggered massive national outrage over the security of women. Lord Justice Fulford told the former Metropolitan official that his crimes had damaged the victim’s loved ones and wider society. The judge also told Couzens that his actions not only devastated Everard’s family but also betrayed his own wife and two children. 

The judge said, “You have very considerably added to the sense of insecurity that many have living in our cities, perhaps particularly women, when travelling by themselves and especially at night.”

Life imprisonment is due to abuse of power

As per the report, the judge said that the reason Couzens was being sent to prison for his whole life is that he abused his powers and used his position to commit the crime. This meant that the judge would treat his crime as seriously as murder carried out for a terrorist move. Fulford said, “I have not the slightest doubt that the defendant used his position as a police officer to coerce her on a wholly false pretext into the car he had hired for this purpose. It is most likely that he suggested to Sarah Everard that she had breached the restrictions on movement that were being enforced during that stage of the pandemic.”

Fulford added, “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.”

Sarah Everard case

Earlier on July 9, Couzens pleaded guilty to murdering the 33-year-old woman Sarah Everard after previously confessing to kidnapping and raping the woman who was just walking back to her home from a friend’s house in south London. Everard, who was a marketing executive went missing on March 3 and her body was then discovered a week later, causing nationwide outrage. 

The 48-year-old Couzens joined London’s Metropolitan Police in 2018 and most recently, he had even served in the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command. It is an armed unit responsible for guarding embassies in the capital and the parliament. However, the Sarah Everard case prompted women across the UK to share their experiences of being threatened, attacked among other fears while walking alone. 

UK woman who vanished on way home

As per reports, Everard set out on a 50-minute walk home from a friend’s house in south London around 9 PM on March 3 but she never came back. On March 4, she was reported missing by her boyfriend. On March 12, police confirmed that a body found hidden in woodland at least 80 kilometres southeast of the city is of Everard. Eventually, London police arrested a member of the force’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command as a suspect in the case. Wayne Couzens was then charged before he finally admitted to the crime on Tuesday.

IMAGE: AP