By Sarah Everard killer appeals whole-life sentence
The killer of Sarah Everard is appealing a sentencing order that said he should not be released from prison until he dies.
Wayne Couzens’ appeal is part of a review by the Court of Appeal of whole-life orders, this will also include arguments for more usage.
His lawyer said his remorse and guilty plea should be taken into account.
The lawyer for Couzens, Jim Sturman QC, said the former Metropolitan Police officer accepted his crimes were “abhorrent”
He said the sentencing judge’s finding that he was not remorseful was “untenable”.
“He was too ashamed to meet anyone’s eye. He was not brazen, staring down at the court in the way sometimes seen,” the lawyer said.
Mr Sturman said it was accepted that Couzens deserved “decades in jail” but said his remorse and guilty plea should be taken into account.
The BBC reported, there are 64 people currently in prison in England and Wales under whole-life orders.
Mr Sturman suggested that Couzens was unique among them.
He said in written submissions: “Whilst this may well be considered by the public and the court to be a case of equal seriousness to a political, religious or ideological murder, it is not such an offence, not does it fall into any other category listed in the schedule.”
Representing the Attorney General, Tom Little QC said Couzens’ offending was of the “utmost seriousness” citing a “fundamental attack in reality on our democratic way of life”.
He said the sentencing judge was entitled to the view that there was a “lack of general contrition” and a whole-life order was right in this “wholly exceptional case”.
Couzens appeared at the hearing by video-link from prison.
