Wayne couzens pleads guilty to the murder of Sarah Everard

MorrisZapp · 09/07/2021 11:07

Does this mean no trial? What a huge weight off for her family. The evidence must have been rock solid.

Original poster

MotionActivatedDog · 09/07/2021 11:11

I think so @MorrisZapp. He’s such a scumbag (well we knew that anyway) that he held off as long as he could before admitting it. Instead of just owning up from the start.

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Original poster

MotionActivatedDog · 09/07/2021 11:12

I’m really hoping his (very late) guilty plea isn’t part of a sentence reducing deal.

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HeronLanyon · 09/07/2021 11:14

The later a guilty plea is entered the less credit (reduction) in sentence he will get. His sentence will be less than if he had pleaded not guilty and there had been a trial.

Original poster

MotionActivatedDog · 09/07/2021 11:18

Thanks @HeronLanyon

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GolfEchoRomeoTangoIndia · 09/07/2021 11:18

Yes there’s a standard tariff of sentence discounts for a guilty plea in England, depending on how early you do it, but there isn’t the sort of plea-bargaining and haggling you’d see in US courts and TV shows.

jay55 · 09/07/2021 11:28

I'm very relieved for her family.

AlfonsoTheMango · 09/07/2021 11:30

@jay55

I'm very relieved for her family.

As am I.

spinningspaniels · 09/07/2021 11:31

Poor Sarah - her family have shown great dignity through all of this

ferretface · 09/07/2021 11:37

Unsurprisingly the perpetrator has a history of using sex workers. How many more like him are there? Men feeling entitled to purchase and ultimately just to take? That's not to say that all men who use prostitutes will go on to murder (obviously not) but it's part of a very toxic narrative about who women are and what they're worth.

I used to be pretty neutral on porn and sex work but 99% of it is not truly consensual.

Original poster

MotionActivatedDog · 09/07/2021 11:37

The next day, police arrested Couzens at 19:50 - 39 minutes after he wiped the data from his mobile phone.

This, from the BBC link, is interesting. What close timing. Possibility he was tipped off?

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SingingSands · 09/07/2021 11:51

I don't know what to say. Relieved that her family won't have to attend the trial.

The more information that comes out about this man the more sickened I feel. It's a truly horrendous and chilling crime.

Sarah

GroggyLegs · 09/07/2021 11:57

Poor Sarah. Her family. His family.

His planning & lies are sickening.
And the fact he was in such a position of trust. Things like this don't just happen, they escalate, so what else have women suffered at the hands of this man?

I do not wish him easy time in prison for what he's done to all of these innocent people.

Lougle · 09/07/2021 12:52

@GroggyLegs

Poor Sarah. Her family. His family.

His planning & lies are sickening.
And the fact he was in such a position of trust. Things like this don't just happen, they escalate, so what else have women suffered at the hands of this man?

I do not wish him easy time in prison for what he's done to all of these innocent people.

I think it's almost worse that he didn't know her at all. He planned to do this to 'someone' and she just happened to be the one, because she was walking home in the dark.

CaveMum · 09/07/2021 13:09

Turns out he had a previous allegation of indecent exposure against him from 2015 as well according to the BBC report on BBC One just now

CaveMum · 09/07/2021 13:12

@GroggyLegs

Poor Sarah. Her family. His family.

His planning & lies are sickening.
And the fact he was in such a position of trust. Things like this don't just happen, they escalate, so what else have women suffered at the hands of this man?

I do not wish him easy time in prison for what he's done to all of these innocent people.

Just saw your post. As I said in my other post just now it turns out he had an allegation of indecent exposure against him in 2015 - like you say these things are always an escalation in behaviour, very few murders are committed out of the blue. Had Kent Police properly investigated the indecent exposure in 2015 he’d never have been employed by the Met and Sarah Everard could still be alive.

They just don’t take these things seriously enough and it’s an utter disgrace.

Gibbonsgibbonsgibbons · 09/07/2021 13:12

I hope this eases her family's immense burden albeit slight.

Sarah

"We still do not know what drove him to commit this appalling crime against a stranger." Does it have to be "driven" or do murderers murder & rapists rape so long as they think they can get away with it?

EmbarrassingAdmissions · 09/07/2021 13:14

They just don’t take these things seriously enough and it’s an utter disgrace.

If certain social changes are allowed to proceed there will be no consideration given to such events at all, it seems, no matter what the association with later escalation.

Gibbonsgibbonsgibbons · 09/07/2021 13:16

Had Kent Police properly investigated the indecent exposure in 2015 he’d never have been employed by the Met and Sarah Everard could still be alive. but if he was canny he'd just have been sure he was exposing "her penis" & there would be nothing to escalate

CaveMum · 09/07/2021 13:18

@EmbarrassingAdmissions

They just don’t take these things seriously enough and it’s an utter disgrace.

If certain social changes are allowed to proceed there will be no consideration given to such events at all, it seems, no matter what the association with later escalation.

Very true, and utterly depressing.

EmbarrassingAdmissions · 09/07/2021 13:26

"We still do not know what drove him to commit this appalling crime against a stranger." Does it have to be "driven" or do murderers murder & rapists rape so long as they think they can get away with it?

Phrasing this carefully, I should think the number of rape prosecutions and their final outcomes might support the perspective that it is something for which there's a high expectation of non-report, non-progression or legal exculpation.

Similarly, the increased use of the 'consent' defence even until the point of death, does seem to be associated with a change of charges to assault, misadventure or much lesser offences than murder or manslaughter (there used to be a rueful pronunciation of that as 'man's laughter' because it was so common for men to be charged with that rather than murder in the death of a woman).

Original poster

MotionActivatedDog · 09/07/2021 13:30

I think it's almost worse that he didn't know her at all. He planned to do this to 'someone' and she just happened to be the one, because she was walking home in the dark. sad

He is a man who pays for sex. Women don’t have identities for him. They have a purpose. They aren’t people, they are tools he uses to achieve his goal.

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Gibbonsgibbonsgibbons · 09/07/2021 13:31

Yes EmbarrassingAdmissions I agree also as police the idea of having "insider knowledge" I suppose.

I always remember a psychiatrist friend describing being flow cross country in the middle of the night (not UK) because the police need to know if a particular murderer was "mad or bad" - he (of course) was bad & my friend tells me that this is as expected, the 'mad' murderers are far more rare.

Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel · 09/07/2021 13:36

Only just heard that at first he lied about a gang forcing him to kidnap her and that she was only identifiable through dental records despite the fact it hadn't been long at all. Poor beautiful girl. Destroyed by a monster. I hope jail is a daily torture for him.

GroggyLegs · 09/07/2021 13:51

I agree with all you say squirrel but I personally refuse to describe men like this as 'monsters' because I feel I'm excusing their behaviour as non-human.

This was a man.
A husband & a police officer. He was a human who chose to do sickening things & thought he was clever enough to talk his way out of it.

Too many men do this.