A lawyer representing the police officer-turned-sex killer Wayne Couzens has told the Court of Appeal his client should spend “decades in jail” for the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 but should not have been given a whole-life prison sentence.
Under English law the mandatory sentence for murder is life but the minimum sentence is set by the trial judge and only 76 people in British prisons are serving whole-life sentences, meaning they will never be released.
In the Court of Appeal on May 4 senior judges heard challenges or appeals to the prison sentences of five convicted murderers, including Couzens, who watched the proceedings on a video link from Frankland prison in County Durham.
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