FORMER cop Wayne Couzens was handed a full life prison sentence for the 2021 murder of Sarah Everard.
The monster will spend the rest of his life locked up with no chance of parole after kidnapping and killing the marketing executive.
Who is Wayne Couzens?
Couzens is a former Metropolitan Police constable who murdered Sarah Everard.
He was living in the coastal town of Deal with his wife and their two young kids when he was arrested six days after the young woman went missing.
Couzens had previously worked as a light-vehicle body repair technician at a garage run by his dad in Dover.
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He left his job as a mechanic in 2011 to follow in the footsteps of his brother, David, and became a cop.
The killer first joined the Civil Nuclear Constabulary before transferring to serve in the Met in September 2018.
There, he worked as an armed diplomatic protection officer based in Westminster and guarded embassies and high-profile potential targets.
What happened to Sarah Everard?
Sarah vanished on March 3, 2021, after leaving a friend's house in Clapham, South London.
She parted ways with her friend at around 9pm and began walking back to her home in Brixton.
She spent 15 minutes on the phone with her boyfriend as she walked and was captured on CCTV at 9.30pm in Clapham.
But Sarah never made it home and her boyfriend reported her missing on March 4.
A huge police search was launched to try and find her and on March 9 detectives investigating Sarah's disappearance charged a serving Met Police officer in his 40s - later identified as Couzens.
Sarah's body was then discovered in a woodland in Ashford, Kent, a week after she disappeared.
Post-mortem results revealed that Sarah died from compression to the neck and that she had been raped.
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Couzens used his warrant card to lure Sarah into his car, it was revealed at his sentencing.
He claimed he was on a "Covid patrol" and used lockdown laws to stage her false arrest before driving her over 80 miles from London to Kent.
Where is Wayne Couzens now?
As of March 2024 Sarah's murderer is serving his whole-life sentence at HMP Frankland in Durham.
Couzens had previously been locked up at HMP Belmarsh in London.
He pleaded guilty to the murder of Sarah in July 2021, after having previously pleaded guilty to her kidnapping and rape.
In the September of that year he was given a full life sentence and was told that he would die in prison.
Just 61 criminals in the UK have had this sentence imposed and Couzens is the first British cop to ever receive it.
Sarah's state of mind, and what she had to endure would have been as bleak and agonising as it is possible to imagine.
Lord Justice Fulford
Lord Justice Fulford explained at the time that the rare sentencing was given due to the fact Couzens had abused his position as a police officer.
The judge said: "Sarah Everard was a wholly blameless victim of a grotesquely executed series of circumstances that culminated in her death and the disposal of her body. She was simply walking home.”
He added that Couzens carried out "warped, selfish and brutal offending that was both sexual and homicidal" and said "Sarah's state of mind, and what she had to endure would have been as bleak and agonising as it is possible to imagine."
Couzens lodged an appeal against his sentence in October 2021 but this was rejected by the Court of Appeal in July 2022.
In March 2023 Couzens was sentenced to an additional 19 months in prison for flashing a cyclist while on duty and exposing himself to McDonald's staff before he murdered Sarah.
He pleaded guilty to three indecent exposure offences in February 2023.
A report released in February 2024 revealed how Couzens had tried to kidnap a woman at knifepoint and sexually assaulted a young girl before he killed Sarah.
The Angiolini Inquiry report also stated that Couzens had raped two women who only came forward after his arrest for Sarah's murder.
Couzen's actions have sparked demand for action to tackle violence against women, as well as for urgent changes to be made in the Met Police.
