Wayne Couzens sentenced for murder of Sarah Everard - what is a whole life order?

Wayne Couzens, 48, was today handed a whole life order for the killing of the 33-year-old marketing executive which shocked and outraged the nation.

Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, Lord Justice Fulford described the circumstances of the murder as ‘grotesque’.

He said the seriousness of the case was so ‘exceptionally high’ that it warranted a whole life order.

He said: “The misuse of a police officer’s role such as occurred in this case in order to kidnap, rape and murder a lone victim is of equal seriousness as a murder for the purpose of advancing a political, religious ideological cause.”

Couzens shook in the dock as he was sent down to begin his sentence.

The court had heard how Couzens used his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card and handcuffs to snatch Ms Everard as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3.

The firearms officer, who had clocked off from a 12-hour shift at the American embassy that morning, drove to a secluded rural area near Dover in Kent, where he parked up and raped Ms Everard.

Ms Everard had been strangled with Couzens’ police issue belt by 2.30am the following morning.

Married Couzens then burned her body in a refrigerator in an area of woodland he owned near Ashford, before dumping the remains in a nearby pond.