Anyone follow the coverage of the Sarah Everard case today and want to vent?

[HangingOver]

I'm home alone today and except for whatsapping my friends have nothing to do with this incandescent rage and hopeless sadness.

Anyone else need to talk?

@NightVinca what he actually fees is pity, for himself.

Where is this being covered please? For some reason I can't concentrate anyway so I may as well try to follow as close to live as is possible.
Am surprised myself how much I keep refreshing this thread and how bothered I am about these crimes against women. Maybe this is my tipping point....

It's going to be a long morning. I feel like a have a stone in my stomach.

Really hoping he gets a whole life tariff. The fact he was a serving police officer should mean he never gets out. Such is the severity of his abuse of his position.

I work in legal area, and am used to seeing a lot of really bad things, sometimes relating to women. It makes me sick.

I have mixed feelings about the reporting in press. However, it does let people realize what an absolute monster this man is. I've seen too many cases where reporting totally minimizes the offense.

Honestly, in cases like this I wish there was the death penalty.

@jillandhersprite

Where is this being covered please? For some reason I can't concentrate anyway so I may as well try to follow as close to live as is possible. Am surprised myself how much I keep refreshing this thread and how bothered I am about these crimes against women. Maybe this is my tipping point....

The telegraph have live updates and they are not paywalled

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/sarah-everard-wayne-couzens-sentencing-murder-case-latest-live/

How can the defence claim being a serving police officer is mitigation? Surely it’s aggravating?

I hope his lawyer feels shame having to read a statement like that. He hasn’t spared the family anything - he killed their daughter!!!!!

Thankyou - found it.
This is the link if anyone else wants it
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/sarah-everard-wayne-couzens-sentencing-murder-case-latest-live/

The shame and disgrace of this shit saying a mitigation is the fact "he WAS a serving police officer"

@Badgercity

How can the defence claim being a serving police officer is mitigation? Surely it’s aggravating?

I find this off too

Plus this

Jim Sturman QC says that the killing of a police officer on duty could be seen as a whole-life term crime, but not necessarily the killing by a police officer on duty.

I hope the QC doesn’t get anywhere with this

Sorry a bit glitchy here - just realised you did the link after as well!!!

That QC is a fucking disgrace for going down this route. So a police officers life is more important than an innocent woman's life. She was walking home, she was doing fuck all wrong. I don't even wanna read anymore of it because it's boiling my blood.

Whether it's his job or not he is a complete cunt.

Almost like the defence is trying to say it would have been worse if it was someone pretending to be a policeman with fake warrant card etc

How on earth can they say it wasn't premeditated? He planned the whole thing, he started planning it almost a month before. He knew exactly what he was doing.

It's not at all a mitigation.
If he hadn't been a serving police officer with a warrant card, then he wouldn't have been able to stage a mock "arrest" It was central to the crime, and absolutely an aggravating factor.

The defence lawyer knows that the best way to ensure this absolutely disgusting man stays in prison forever, with no chance of appeal, is to give him the best defence he can.

@TartanJumper

It's not at all a mitigation. If he hadn't been a serving police officer with a warrant card, then he wouldn't have been able to stage a mock "arrest" It was central to the crime, and absolutely an aggravating factor.

Exactly. It's integral to the case. How anyone can pretend otherwise is beyond me.

I absolutely HATE the fact that "previous good character" gets wheeled out in these cases. Just because he hadn't been reported or charged with crimes previously is not evidence of previous good character in a rape case, because sexual offences are hardly ever reported.

@CityCommuter

What happened to Sarah is the most horrific crime in recent times. She was such a beautiful girl with a kind and trusting soul and had so much to live for and was brought up well with a loving family. If only she hadn't been so trusting but she must have thought she was doing the right thing by complying...

This is the one time that an exception should be made in UK law to ensure that the death penalty is brought back in the UK to immediately deal with this monster of a thing who cannot be called human in any way, shape or form. Hanging done slowly for him preferably. Otherwise many people would gladly offer to set fire to him while he's still alive to make sure he suffers... People feel so strongly about this case and will continue to be outraged about it until the law changes. It's well known that Capital punishment acts as a deterrent from serious crimes... it works very well in other countries...

Two wrongs never make a right. Never have, and never will.

I hope he lives till he's 110, in a prison where he'll probably be on the "vulnerable prisoners" wing, with all the other sex offenders, paedophiles and bent coppers.

He'll spend every waking minute watching his back, never knowing who may be coming for him, who will cut him, stab him, scald him, beat him to death. Maybe even rape him.

And every day, he'll have a taste of some of the fear that women routinely live with when they're out alone, walking the dog, walking back from work after a late shift, after a night out.

And I hope he lives like that for a very long time - terrified.

@Badgercity

“ Sturman says he had no previous convictions and appeared to be living a law-abiding life. His colleagues described him as "friendly and calm" ”

His colleagues described him as The Rapist. Fucking hell.

He only has no previous convictions because the police failed to prosecute for the crime of indecent exposure several times over.

He only has no previous convictions because apparently men need to kill women to get a slap on the wrist from the judiciary these days.

EVEN men who kill women get off with ridiculously low sentences a lot of the time.

The police and judiciary are filled with misogynists (yes there are good people too, but look at the statistics, the misogynists are winning).

I think they are going down the route of mitigation as look at all the good he's done as a serving police officer.

I mean if this was a traffic violation or something I'd think of stupid copper was just over the limit and drove home didn't injure someone, but got pulled, stupid mistake. Many do it, but he has a good career and good conduct and this is the first and last stupid mistake he will make, so can we have a 6month ban and a fine rather than a 12month ban and a fine.

I mean he'd loose his job anyway but it's about mitigating.

This doesn't apply to when you murder people!!! It wasn't a error of judgment, it wasn't a stupid mistake. It was a cold and callous calculated crime.

Hired a car
Used his warrant card and handcuffs to stage an arrest.
Drive the victim away
The planing around the disposal of Sarah's poor body.

This won't float, but the defence has to persue mitigation as part of their job. They have no choice. They can't refuse to defend him because he's entitled to defence. I wouldn't blame the barrister he's just doing his job.

I'd be interested to hear from his wife on this, as I don't buy that he was a perfect family man whilst having the nickname amongst colleagues that he did, and acting in the way he did in public. I suspect there may be factors / triggers there that should have flagged when he applied to the MET. Had she ever called the police because of his behaviour etc? I doubt it, but this can't have come out of the blue for her.

I can’t believe that this wasn’t a premeditated murder. If he intended to rape her and release her he wouldn’t have driven so far. He made no attempts to conceal his identity from her, which he would have done if he knew she would be alive to identity him.

Does anyone know if the burden of proof is the same for sentencing as it is for a jury verdict?

There are 4 cases being heard today at the old Bailey. 2 of them are fucking men murdering women. The other is a man and woman murdering a toddler. WHEN will this stop. WHY are the most vulnerable in society failed. Why the fuck are beasts like Wayne couzens allowed to roam the earth unmonitored. Why has it taken the most heinous disgusting evil crime to expose him for the filthy pervert he is. I'm sick of this. They knew what he was like, they fucking seen him coming.