Wayne Couzens ‘showed remorse’ for murdering Sarah Everard and should have whole life sentence overturned, court told

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Wayne Couzens showed “remorse” for the murder of Sarah Everard and should have his whole-life prison sentence overturned, a court has been told. “The matter to decide is whether or not a term of minimum 35 to 39 years before release or a whole life order is merited.” But Tom Little QC, representing the prosecution, said a whole life order was “neither wrong in principle nor manifestly excessive”, and that the murder of Ms Everard was a “wholly exceptional case”. “The combination of remorse and the guilty plea should balance out the aggravating factor of him being a police officer - albeit off-duty in half uniform.” He also argued that the case fell outside a list of criteria for whole life orders, and said that no one had been given such a term for a single murder unless it was of a politician, child or in a terror attack. “His criminality was a fundamental attack on our way of life.” Couzens’ lawyers pointed out that serving police officers who murdered their partners had not been given whole life terms, but Mr Little said domestic cases were “not comparable”.