Sarah’s killer loses bid to cut sentence
Case ‘so extreme that whole-life tariff must stand’
WAYNE Couzens lost a bid to reduce his prison sentence yesterday after joining other notorious killers in an unprecedented challenge to whole-life tariffs.
But Ian Stewart, 61, who murdered his first wife six years before killing his fiancee – children’s author Helen Bailey – succeeded in having his sentence reduced at the Court of Appeal.
Former Scotland Yard firearms officers Couzens, who tricked Sarah Everard, 33, into his car before raping and murdering her, was told by Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, that his crime was so exceptional his sentence should stand.
Senior judges heard his appeal against sentence along with those of Stewart and three other convicted killers in May and handed down their decisions yesterday. Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes, who killed six-yearold Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, also had their sentences reviewed, along with triple murderer Jordan Monaghan, who killed his two infant children and his girlfriend.
Couzens, 49, became the first non-terrorist to be given a wholelife term for a single murder of an adult last year.
His lawyers agreed he deserved ‘decades in jail,’ but argued the tariff was excessive. The judges refused to reduce it, however, and Lord Burnett said the seriousness of his crimes was ‘so exceptionally high such that a whole life order… should be made’.
He continued: ‘This was, as the judge said, warped, selfish and brutal offending. It was a case with unique and extreme aggravating features. Chief amongst these… was the grotesque misuse by Couzens of his position as a police officer.’
Lord Burnett, sitting with Dame Victoria Sharp, Lord Justice Holroyde, Mr Justice Sweeney and Mr Justice Johnson, said there had been 59 prisoners serving whole life orders as of March 31, 2022.
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes suffered a catastrophic brain injury while in the care of Tustin, who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years for his murder.
Tustin challenged the length of her sentence while Arthur’s father, Hughes, who was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter, appealed against his sentence.
The judges refused to change Tustin’s sentence, but Hughes’ sentence was deemed unduly lenient and increased to 24 years. Double killer Stewart, 61, successfully appealed against his whole-life order. The judges cut his sentence to life ,with a 35-year minimum.
Monaghan was ordered to serve a minimum of 40 years for three murders and two attempted murders. He smothered his 24-day-old daughter on New Year’s Day 2013.
Eight months later he smothered his 21-month-old son, and six years after that he murdered partner Evie Adams with a drugs overdose.
The judges ruled that, while a whole life order should not be imposed, the sentence should be increased to life with a minimum term of 48 years, meaning he will be nearly 80 before the Parole Board can consider him for release.