Sarah Everard’s killer failed to persuade judges to reduce his term.

29 July 2022

Wayne Couzens is still set to die in prison after he lost his bid to reduce his sentence at the Court of Appeal.

In May, senior judges heard challenges or appeals to the prison sentences of five convicted killers, including the whole-life terms of former police officer Couzens and double murderer Ian Stewart.

Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes, who killed six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, also had their sentences reviewed, along with triple murderer Jordan Monaghan.

On Friday, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and four other judges refused to lower Couzens’ sentence.

Last year, the former officer was handed a whole life term for the rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, the first time the sentence had been imposed for a single murder of an adult not committed in the course of a terror attack.

Appealing against the whole-life term, Couzens’s lawyers argued he deserved “decades in jail” but said a whole-life term was excessive.

However, in a summary read out in court, Lord Burnett said that the sentencing judge was entitled to impose a whole life order due to the facts of Couzens’ case.