The Sarah Everard affair: perpetuates the London police officer accused of rape and femicide | While off duty, Wayne Couzens faked arrest for violating pandemic restrictions

The British policeman Wayne Couzens, 48, was sentenced on Thursday to life imprisonment for rape and murder in March from young londoner Sarah Everard, who handcuffed faking arrest, in a case that shocked the UK.

The murder took place under “particularly brutal, tragic and devastating circumstances,” London Criminal Court Judge Adrian Fulford said when Wayne Couzens’ conviction was announced.

The disappearance of Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, during the confinement of the European winter, shocked the whole country, sparked large protests and sparked heated debate over women’s safety on the streets.

Couzens, an officer in London’s elite Police Diplomatic Protection Unit, had admitted to his kidnapping, rape and murder in July.

Everard, who was returning home on March 3 after visiting friends in south London, was strangled and burned. His remains were found in a forest a week later.

During the first of two days of court hearing, prosecutor Tom Little told the court on Wednesday how the officer detained the young woman and accused her of violating the restrictions, which then prohibited gatherings at other people’s homes. .

Couzens, who was not on duty, kidnapped Everard in a “false arrest”, “by handcuffing her and showing her his credentials,” he said.

Footage from street security cameras showed this scene. A couple driving by also witnessed and assumed an undercover police officer was making an arrest, the prosecutor said.