“The abuse of the role of police officer in this case due to the abduction, rape and murder of a lone victim is as serious as a political, religious or ideological murder,” said Judge Adrian Fulford, who justified the aggravating circumstances of awarding the highest court. punishment.
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According to Sky News, the judge further stated in the verdict that the former law enforcement officer abducted, raped and murdered the woman “in a particularly brutal way”, emphasizing that he was preparing for his act.
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According to the court, Couzens went to London for at least a month and figured out how to do his horrible act. He then decided to “persecute, kidnap, rape and murder a lonely woman.”
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The accused police officer appeared in court in June via a video call from Belmarsh Prison. The judge then confessed to Everard’s abduction and rape. However, he refused to confess to her murder. He didn’t admit it until a month later.
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The judge’s confession did not soften
Couzens’s lawyer asked the court to take into account in its verdict that his client had voluntarily confessed to the actions and expressed regret. According to him, it was not a pre-planned murder. But the judge did not agree with him. “You have betrayed your family and there is no evidence that you really regret it,” he added to the convict.
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The British judiciary extends to life imprisonment for the most serious crimes, such as serial killings.
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He abused his position as a police officer
The 48-year-old police officer, who worked as a security guard for diplomatic buildings, abducted 33-year-old Everard in March this year as she was returning home from Clapham, London, to Brixton at night.
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The prosecutor described in court that he had used a ruse: he showed the woman his ID card, pretended to arrest her for violating quarantine measures against covid-19, and then put her in a rented car with police handcuffs on his hands. Then he took her to a remote place, where he raped her, strangled her, and burned her body.
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The case shocked the public
After the abduction of Everard, Couzens left London. However, investigators subsequently managed to find out that he, an employee of the London police at the time, was behind the abduction.
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Investigators found the body of the marketer seven days later in a bag in a Kentish forest near the town of Ashford. The victim was identified by their teeth, indicating that the body was unrecognizable.
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