Image source,Everard Family
The 33-year-old victim Sarah Everard grew up in Yorkshire, England, graduated from the famous Durham University, and worked as a marketing job for an electronic media company in London.
A British court trial verdict that an active police homicide occurred in March this year, exposing the murderer’s heinous and brutal crimes, and also triggered a crisis of confidence in the police force from all walks of life.
On September 30, the British Criminal Court sentenced the criminal Wayne Couzens to the heaviest sentence-whole-life order (WLO). There is no death penalty in the UK. The WLO penalty means that criminals will never be commuted or released on parole, and will go to jail to death.
The 33-year-old victim Sarah Everard grew up in Yorkshire, England, and graduated from the famous Durham University in the United Kingdom. Before her death, she worked as a marketing job for an electronic media company in London and lived in Brix, South London. Brixton.
After the sentence was pronounced, the victim’s Sarah Everard’s family said that although the sentence of life imprisonment can comfort the family’s torture after Sarah’s murder, no matter how severely punished the culprit, Sarah will not be able to return.
In the memories of relatives and friends, Sarah was “smart, beautiful, kind, understanding, strong, principled, and very humorous. She is an example for all of us.”
Image source,PA Media
Closed-circuit television images showed that the assailant had shown his police credentials to the victim.
After the court’s decision, Dame Cressida Dick, chief of the London Metropolitan Police Department, stated that she recognized that Cozens had undermined the public’s “precious trust” in the police force and brought shame to the London Police Department. .
She said that Cozens was a “coward” and his crime “completely betrayed the duty of police work.” She said: “I apologize for this,” and promised to learn the lessons from this case.
The murder that shook Britain
Wyan Cozens was a police officer in the London Police at the time of the incident. He joined the London Police Force in September 2018, and was transferred to the police unit responsible for parliamentary and diplomatic protection in February 2020. His main job is to patrol around foreign consulates in London.
On the evening of March 3, 2021, Cozens intercepted Sarah Everard, who was walking home after visiting friends, on the side of a busy road in south London.
Image source,Metropolitan Police
The 48-year-old murderer Wayne Couzens was sentenced to the highest sentence in the UK-life imprisonment, and will never be allowed to bail or commute his sentence.
He handcuffed her to a rented car on the grounds that she violated the epidemic isolation regulations, and then kidnapped her to Kent in southeast London. After the rape, he strangled Sarah with his police belt and burned the body. And abandoned the wreck in a wood he bought a few years ago.
Cozens’ defense attorney stated in court that he had pleaded guilty and repented of the crime, and requested a lighter sentence from the judge, but the judge said that Cozens “Despite the guilty plea, I did not see any real repentance from you. , What you have shown is only self-pity, trying to mitigate or even avoid the consequences of what you have done.”
The judge stated that the crime in this case was “extremely serious” and must be sentenced to “life imprisonment.”
“The kidnapping, rape, and murder of an unaccompanied victim who abused the identity of the police in this case is as serious as a murder for the advancement of politics, religion, or ideology. All these crimes are treated from different levels. Our democratic way of life launches an attack.”
The history of life imprisonment in the UK
Introduction by Dominic Casciani, BBC Home Affairs and Legal Correspondent：
More than 50 years ago, the British Parliament abolished the death penalty, but promised the British public that the worst offenders who committed the most serious crimes would be kept in prison for the rest of their lives.
Since then, a series of complicated rules have evolved in order for the judge to impose a “life imprisonment order” (WLO).
According to the law, a “life imprisonment order” should generally be considered only if the offender has killed more than once, killed police or prison guards, kidnapped and brutally killed children, or killed people out of ideological motives.
Although the lawmakers did not expect such a serious crime when enacting the law, they said that in other unimaginable circumstances, if the severity of the crime is particularly high, the judge can impose a “life imprisonment order.”
The judge concluded in the verdict that the abuse of police identity to deceive, kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Evlad is as bad as terrorism. Crimes not only torture the victims heinously, but also undermine the public’s trust in the police, which is an important cornerstone of building a safe society.
This is why the law allows the judge to rule that Cozens will never be released from prison.
The storm blows towards the police
Cozens committed such a cruel crime as an active policeman, causing public opinion and society to ask a series of very sharp questions to torture the police force:
- Why can Cozens get into the police force?
- Why did the police force’s extremely strict employment verification system fail to detect problems early?
- Why has Cozens been repeatedly reported by the public as suspected of showing sex but the police force has not taken any action?
Image source,PA Media
Dame Cressida Dick, the first female chief of the London Metropolitan Police, faced pressure from all sides to take the blame and resign.
According to reports, Kozens was associated with an indecent exposure case as early as 2015, but the Kent police did not initiate an investigation; in February 2021, he was alleged to have two suspected exposures, but London The police also did not take action.
British Minister of Law Enforcement Kit Malthouse (Kit Malthouse) told the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC on Friday (October 1) that members of the British police force are aware of the serious damage caused by this incident. as a result of.
“The top priority now is to rebuild trust in the police force, especially to do this job well in London.”
Cressida Dick, chief of the London Metropolitan Police, faced calls from various quarters for her to resign.
In order to calm the panic among the public, the London Police Department stated that it would increase police patrols, take allegations of indecent exposure “seriously”, and sent an additional 650 police officers to patrol the busy areas of London.
However, a “rectification movement” within the police force seems to have just begun, and there are calls for investigating whether there is an “official protection” style and practice in the police force; in addition, the investigation of whether Cozens is related to other murders in the past has also been carried out. Start.