Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens deserves ‘decades in jail’ but whole-life term excessive, lawyer tells appeal court
Wayne Couzens deserves "decades in jail", his barrister has told the Court of Appeal in the former police officer's appeal against his whole-life prison sentence.
The former Pc was handed a whole-life term last year for the rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard after he abducted her in south London on March 3 2021.
It was the first time the sentence had been imposed for a single murder of an adult not committed in the course of a terror attack.
A bearded Couzens, wearing a grey jumper, appeared by video-link from HMP Frankland at the start of the hearing for his appeal against his whole-life term.
Members of Ms Everard's family were present in the Royal Courts of Justice as the his appeal was discussed.
Jim Sturman QC, for Couzens, said: "Mr Couzens accepts that his crimes are abhorrent and nothing I say in any way is intended to minimise them or to minimise the impact of these crimes on
Sarah Everard's family and huge circle of friends."
He told the court that it was accepted that Couzens deserved "decades in jail" but argued a whole-life term was excessive.
Mr Sturman added: "The combination of his remorse and his guilty pleas... should balance out that aggravating factor which clearly exists, of him being a police officer, albeit off-duty."
The barrister told the court that Couzens was unique out of the 64 people currently serving whole life orders.
He said in written submissions: "Whilst this may well be considered by the public and the court to be a case of equal seriousness to a political, religious, or ideological murder, it is not such an offence, not does it fall into any other category listed in the schedule."
Tom Little QC, representing the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and Crown Prosecution Service, said Couzens' offending was of the "utmost seriousness", adding: "His criminality was, as found by the judge, a fundamental attack in reality on our democratic way of life."
"A police officer is in a uniquely powerful position," Mr Little said.
He concluded: "The wholelife order was the right sentence to impose in this wholly exceptional case."