Why did Wayne Couzens get a whole life tariff?

[Ishacoco]

Obviously he deserves it - and so much more - for what he put that poor girl through, but why did he get a whole life sentence rather than just a life sentence with a fixed term?

He abused his power as a police officer to kidnap Sarah which made the crime even more serious.

The sentencing remarks are publicly available www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Wayne-Couzens-Sentencing-Remarks.pdf

Because his crime was considered particularly heinous as he abused what should have been the trust in the police to commit it

I'll be amazed if that's the only woman he has killed.

He used his position of trust to commit a crime. Like @KangFang says I'd be amazed if there were no more victims.

Can someone explain to me please what the difference is between a whole life sentence and a life sentence with a fixed term?

Does the former mean that a person is never eligible for release and the latter mean that they could be after X years?

Yes, exactly that.

Thanks sashh.

Perhaps that should be the sentence for every planned murder of a stranger/innocent party (the whole life tariff). I'd vote for it anyway.

As others have said, it's because he used his position as a police officer to do it, which hugely undermines the trust the public should be able to have in the police. I think it was absolutely the right call for the judge to make and, like others, I think there may well be other victims out there.

Would certainly save costs on judges, juries, due process, lawyers, etc.

I think that anyone who commits a crime like that is clearly a danger to society incapable of rehabilitation and should be locked up for life with no possibility of parole. Sabrina Nessa, Julia James, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman's killers should receive the same imo.

As others said though, the argument re Sarah Everard's killer was that he was a police officer and it's in the sentencing guidelines that the murder of a police officer the base sentence is a whole life term (that's the point that the judge starts at and then would deduct time for mitigating factors). My understanding is that it was felt appropriate that this be mirrored for the victim of a police officer who used his status to murder.

Why? You'd need to be convicted before you were sentenced and also exhaust any appeal process.

I actually thought whole life tariffs were unlawful under the Human Rights Act/ECHR.

That doesn't mean I don't think he should spend the rest of his life rotting in the least pleasant jail we have.

While he brought the police into disrepute, they brought themselves into disrepute by knowing what he was like and dismissing it as banter. As well as the vigil debacle. The Met police needs full scale reform.

Oh, ok. That makes sense. It very definitely undermines public confidence in police. I read somewhere relatively recently that he's appealed to have his sentence reduced - with no success.

It's an interesting thought that he might have done this before. I hadn't considered that, although it was a very aggressive, confident crime to commit as a first offence.

It isn't just that he murdered Sarah Everard, it is that he used his police warrant card to arrest her and drag her into his custody before putting her through hell and killing her. So she was duped into getting into the car with him and public confidence in the police, particularly the Metropolitan Police, was seriously undermined.

If I recall correctly, the next morning he also took his children to play in the woods close to where he had buried her bodly.

I think the judge made the right call. Evil monsters such as him should never be released. As some have also suggested, there could well be other victims out there somewhere. Unlikely that he has only struck once, and if released then he would almost certainly strike again. He would be a huge danger to the public, and probably especially to women.

Fixed term is exactly as the term suggests, a fixed number of years to be served before becoming eligible to apply for parole. Whole of life tariff is when the judge feels that the defendant is too dangerous to ever be released.

I agree with whole of life tariffs in cases like Wayne Couzens, Ian Huntly, Peter Sutcliffe (Yorkshire Ripper).

He did apply to have his sentence reduced. Very fortunately, as you say, he was unsuccessful. I hope he never tries again but I don't know whether or not he has the legal right to.

@KangFang the abduction took place very very close to where I live and the entire community was really shaken by it

There were obviously lots of questions asked about whether he could be connected to other missing women but there didn’t seem to be anything substantive linking him to other cases

one theory I saw was that he was a prolific user of sex workers, and had been known to be violent towards them

During lockdown, he wasn’t able to use and abuse sex workers, and that is possibly what triggered such a violent attack on Sarah, as well as his other behaviour in the lead up to the attack on her

It’s almost too grim for words to think that being able to regularly abuse vulnerable women sex workers was the only thing stopping him from raping and murdering random members of the public.

I hope he rots

That was overturned in 2014

Because he was serving police officer who abused his power to falsely arrest sarah Everard and brutally rape and murder her quire apart from the fact what does that say about tye police ?
We are told to go them if we feel threatened etc

Sarah Everard was a 33YO woman, not a girl.

I don't know why that bothers me about the OP.

Yes, the judges decision fir his appeal was televised.

There were cameras in the court room, bit you only see the judges.
Here is a link, it's only 8 mins long

Gosh, my spelling is atrocious in my last post, sorry.

Just to add, the Judges are giving thier decisions for a number of appeal cases, so not just Couzens

I agree. To go from nothing to that doesn’t seem right.

He lived near me. Reports of his movements after the kidnap have him going to my local Homebase to buy tools to cover up his hideous crime. Absolutely petrifying to think that this man was in such a position of power.

Thanks for sharing that @minou123.

I didn’t know until I watched that clip that the repulsive Ian Stewart had also been convicted of the murder of his first wife, Diane. After he was convicted of killing Helen Bailey, I remember hearing that they were going to reinvestigate the death of his wife, but didn’t know he’d been convicted. Whilst sickened and saddened at what he did to those two women, I’m glad he now has convictions for both and will never leave prison.