Wayne Couzens has lost an attempt to overturn his whole-life term for the murder of Sarah Everard, according to the BBC.
The ex-Metropolitan Police officer, who used his position to trick Ms Everard into his car, had challenged his sentence at the Court of Appeal.
But the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, said the crime was so exceptional the sentence should stand.
The appeal was part of a major review of what type of rare murders should lead to a whole-life term.
Under the law, judges must consider whole-life sentences in exceptional cases of murder – including double killings or crimes that are particularly sadistic. There are 59 killers currently spending their entire lives in jail.
Dismissing Couzens’ appeal, Lord Burnett said the murder of Ms Everard had been “unspeakably grim”.
“This was, as the [sentencing] judge said, warped, selfish and brutal offending, which was both sexual and homicidal.
“It was a case with unique and extreme aggravating factors.
“Chief amongst those, as the judge correctly identified, was the grotesque misuse of Couzens of his position as a police officer with all that connoted to facilitate Ms Everard’s kidnap, rape and murder.”
Image Source: BBC
