London police officer gets life for abducting, killing woman
ABC News
A serving London police officer has been sentenced to a whole life sentence for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a woman in a case that shocked the nation
LONDON -- A serving London police officer was sentenced Thursday to a whole life sentence for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a woman in a case that shocked the nation.
Wayne Couzens, 48, was accused of using his police identification and COVID-19 laws to trick 33-year-old Sarah Everard into his car in a false arrest as she walked home from visiting a friend in south London on March 3. Prosecutors said he handcuffed Everard on the pretext that she broke lockdown rules, drove her far outside the capital and then raped and killed her.
Couzens had pleaded guilty to the charges of abduction, rape and murder.
Justice Adrian Fulford said the circumstances of the case are “devastating, tragic and wholly brutal." He said Couzens went “hunting a lone female to kidnap and rape," having planned the crime in “unspeakably” grim detail.
