GUILTY UK - Sarah Everard, 33, London, Clapham Common area, 3 Mar 2021 *Awaiting Sentencing*, #15

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Marantz4250b said:
The judge hasn't refused it though. He's adjourned the case for sentencing. If there was the slightest doubt that this guy was innocent his barrister would have told him to plead not guilty and of they thought he was pleading guilty in error would be duty bound to dismiss themselves from the case.

You cannot insinuate something against someone if they have said it themselves.
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Exactly he has plead guilty and it’s been accepted by the courts.
 
“But Couzens, married to Elena, frequently used prostitutes. And he was branded a drug-taking pervert by an ex-girlfriend who fled from him after he exploded in a rage.

Experts say he has harboured violent sexual fantasies all his life — and could be responsible for further serious offences”

“Professor David Wilson, said: “In my experience of working with violent men, nobody goes from flashing to murder without there being intermediary offences.”

“It would be very unusual for him to have done what he did to Sarah without having done anything else.

Professor Wilson, emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham University, added: “Couzens has had this fantasy of violent sexual behaviour all is life.

“He has carried firearms and worn police uniform in order to be powerful, in control and to be trusted.

“He has cloaked himself in respectability and masked his true sexual deviancy.

“There has to be a possibility that he is responsible for other serious crimes.

It would be negligent if the police do not consider this seriously.”
Sarah's killer used cop uniform to hide 'sexual deviancy', criminologist says
 
As we suspected he clearly went to great lengths to hide his own DNA on her body and make her unrecognisable. Hence the axe (IMO), the burning and the water (stream).

I hope they find the plastic film from the car seats he disposed of - but he probably burned that too. And possibly her phone.
 
CPS Guidance - Mandator Life Sentence In Murder Cases

A few posts back I mentioned a 40 year starting point for the minimum term which must be served before parole can be applied for. That was wrong, the terms are Whole Life, 30 years, 25 years and 15 years.

I think that it's pretty much a certainty that the judge will find that the starting point of 30 years is the correct one. If you look at the part relating to aggravating factors, there are loads which apply to this case as it is and I think that the continuing investigation will turn up, or at least strongly imply, more. I can't see that any of those listed as mitigating factors apply to him. Not even his guilty plea. However in both cases it says that the mitigating and aggravating factors ...may include... the ones listed so the judge can consider anything he thinks reasonable. I'd be amazed if he were given less than 30 years but I think it will be set higher than that with a WLO well within the realms of possibility.
 
Marantz4250b said:
CPS Guidance - Mandator Life Sentence In Murder Cases

A few posts back I mentioned a 40 year starting point for the minimum term which must be served before parole can be applied for. That was wrong, the terms are Whole Life, 30 years, 25 years and 15 years.

I think that it's pretty much a certainty that the judge will find that the starting point of 30 years is the correct one. If you look at the part relating to aggravating factors, there are loads which apply to this case as it is and I think that the continuing investigation will turn up, or at least strongly imply, more. I can't see that any of those listed as mitigating factors apply to him. Not even his guilty plea. However in both cases it says that the mitigating and aggravating factors ...may include... the ones listed so the judge can consider anything he thinks reasonable. I'd be amazed if he were given less than 30 years but I think it will be set higher than that with a WLO well within the realms of possibility.
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Agree 100%, I said yesterday I think 30 years minimum will be the starting point. This is a high profile case with a large backlash from women's groups & this guy being in such a position of power & trust & likely having used his police ID to get her into his vehicle, I think that the judge will be sending a very stiff message to the police force in particular & sex killers in general.
 
jimbob5 said:
Agree 100%, I said yesterday I think 30 years minimum will be the starting point. This is a high profile case with a large backlash from women's groups & this guy being in such a position of power & trust & likely having used his police ID to get her into his vehicle, I think that the judge will be sending a very stiff message to the police force in particular & sex killers in general.
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I don't think the judge will be influenced in the least by public feeling or sentiment. He is there to apply the law. Regardless of the level of outrage and police failings here he will apply the correct sentence according to the facts before him. Even if there had been no publicity of this case, he'd still be handing out a 30+ year sentence.
 
Marantz4250b said:
CPS Guidance - Mandator Life Sentence In Murder Cases

A few posts back I mentioned a 40 year starting point for the minimum term which must be served before parole can be applied for. That was wrong, the terms are Whole Life, 30 years, 25 years and 15 years.

I think that it's pretty much a certainty that the judge will find that the starting point of 30 years is the correct one. If you look at the part relating to aggravating factors, there are loads which apply to this case as it is and I think that the continuing investigation will turn up, or at least strongly imply, more. I can't see that any of those listed as mitigating factors apply to him. Not even his guilty plea. However in both cases it says that the mitigating and aggravating factors ...may include... the ones listed so the judge can consider anything he thinks reasonable. I'd be amazed if he were given less than 30 years but I think it will be set higher than that with a WLO well within the realms of possibility.
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I just wanted to add, in addition to your comment and correction, forsentencing there are a number of steps:

Step 1: Identify starting point (Schedule 21)
Step 2: Apply aggravating and mitigating factors.
Step 3: Apply statutory aggravating and mitigating factors such as early plea, previous convictions, time on remand.

You have corrected the applicable starting points. Just to add that it is possible for the aggravating factors to move a 30 year starting point into a whole life term. Indeed, these are starting points and CJA2003 and relevant case law (eg R v Kelly) means the judge can apply the aggravating and mitigating factors freely i.e. not rigidly.

There are substantial aggravating factors which seem to apply and very few/no mitigating factors. He has some potential personal mitigation for remorse but that remorse must be genuine, and could further include cooperating with authorities and providing an account to the police in interview which the judge has specifically mentioned that WC has failed to do, according to news reports. His only account to the police is fanciful.

I agree with you that it is quite possible that a whole life term will apply here either in step 1 or step 2. Just to add that if a whole life order is relevant due to the exceptionally high seriousness then a guilty plea (which applies a percentage reduction to the time) is unlikely/impossible to change the outcome.
 
jimbob5 said:
Agree 100%, I said yesterday I think 30 years minimum will be the starting point. This is a high profile case with a large backlash from women's groups & this guy being in such a position of power & trust & likely having used his police ID to get her into his vehicle, I think that the judge will be sending a very stiff message to the police force in particular & sex killers in general.
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Kitkat28 said:
Wow! That’s a touch…excessive don’t you think?
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Probably did not express it properly and reading back I see how it could be taken.

I will try to rephrase and express it better :
I would not keep such an offender in jail for the rest of his life , where , by the way , he will become very expensive for society .
The way he committed his crimes and what they represent psychologically ....this is not a mistake , somebody that just lost his way and we can hope to rehabilitate through the system .
Also , he has taken her life and left a trail of mental destruction for her family to deal with and try to stay afloat .

I would try and save pity,sympathy and empathy for her family rather than him .

P.S. Power and control , remember this .
 
Re: the axe - he was chopping wood for fire? I recall somewhere on here around March citing a witness who saw a bonfire in the woods. Other evidence: well reports are that they traced his movements after her disappearance (from his phone signal I think), tallied it with cctv in the respective locations , hence why police were searching loads of different sites around Dover. CCTV showed him throwing something into the sandwich stream - maybe that’s the phone, and he had been linked to all the other places - the garage, tunnels, behind SJA Dover, the old breakers yard near the skatepark etc etc … so if they actually recovered anything I don’t know but he was buzzing about all over the area after the deed…
Also I recall his dad bought a bit of the land behind BJA. When he said to the witness that he had buried his dad in the copse .. very odd. But I did think his dad had died 2020? Before he went on extended leave from his diplomatic police job. Other news report cites family member saying his dad is very ill - so contradicts this, but his uncle did pass away at some point - I think that maybe whose ashes are scattered with the wooden cross in the copse. one other thing: I recall earlier on the threads the buscam shot of a car waiting at the lights with what people thought was someone scrunched down in passenger seat - do we now think that may have been the car? There were other shots that people here saw on the TFL website but that were then removed also - leaving a gap in the recordings uploaded. Presume that is most likely the one that captured vital evidence.
 
And re: developed vetting etc, it is not always as rigorous as it might seem. I personally know people who have passed it despite having perhaps questionable things in their past . Maybe not things that flag them as killers/sex offenders of course but certainly don’t need to have a clean sheet to pass high level developed vetting .
 
Lincoln34 said:
LIFE SENTENCES — Defence-Barrister.co.uk
The above link explains the approach to sentences for murder and what is needed for a whole life tariff. Ian Huntley - Soham murderer ( Holly and Jessica) did not receive a whole life order - I think in part because the alleged sexual motivation could not be proven - He has a minimum of 40 years.
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I think that the main problem was that he committed his crimes prior to the sentencing guidelines being implemented. Also, it couldn't have been a WLO starting point as I think that they could not prove that he actually abducted them. In any event, it's mostly academic as he's never getting out.
 
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