Sarah Everard murder | Wayne Couzens given whole-life sentence

[denislawsbackheel]

No it isn't.

Couzens was only able to kill Sarah in the way he did because he was a police officer. Police procedure directly allowed him to carry out his crime. He showed her his police badge to gain her trust, he used police COVID restrictions to force compliance, he used police handcuffs to arrest her, and he stuffed her into the back of a police car. Passers-by have admitted that they didn't act because all they saw was a police officer arresting someone. And before Sarah even walked past him on that night, failure at an institutional level allowed Couzens to continue carrying his badge, his handcuffs, and his weapons despite being under investigation for sex-related offences already.

But even before we knew this, the behaviour of police at Clapham Common was unnecessarily heavy-handed and violent. Now we know the facts of how Sarah was murdered, you have to wonder what's currently going through the heads of the 9 women who were being held in police custody by Couzens' colleagues. Colleagues who knew of Couzens' history of indecent exposure, by the way, and jokingly referred to him as "The Rapist" while he served as a police officer. How are women expected to trust police officers ever again after this? How are women expected to trust the police as an institution when they allowed somebody like Couzens to not only continue working on the force despite his past behaviour, but let it linger long enough that a woman was murdered by him?

Couzens wasn't some random sicko who dragged a woman off the street, he was a police officer who abused power that he knew he had. And the women who were beaten around and wrongfully arrested by male police officers in Clapham, during a fucking candlelight vigil for someone who was murdered after being literally wrongfully arrested by another male police officer in Clapham, had every right to attend that vigil and now have every right to claim any damages they want. You have to be seriously fucking dense not to see the parallels here.

He did not use a police car.
It was a hire car.

 

[wayne71]

You only have to look at what’s going on in Melbourne to see the kind of people the police attracts. Complete fucking scumbags.

 

[paulchapo]

It wouldn't have been as easy if he would have been suspended due to the indecent exposure allegations against him. No warrant card for one, although the scum could have bought some handcuffs. Hopefully no other woman goes along with somebody who's alone saying they're a police officer. Phone 999, wait for somebody to turn up, run, fight, anything, just don't comply, especially when you know you have done nothing wrong

 

[Blue Mist]

You only have to look at what’s going on in Melbourne to see the kind of people the police attracts. Complete fucking scumbags.

So we are now comparing the police in a country 9,000 miles away to this country. Further you have no real idea what was happening in Melbourne but your hatred is enough to make a decision.
Seems fair.

 

[Blue and true]

Christ what an absolutely repulsive creature. Murder in the heat of the moment is bad enough. That it can be this calculated? I mean he must have spent weeks and weeks planning this. And the most tragic thing of all is that it was literally going to be any lone woman he could prey on that night.

People vociferously shout for the death penalty with stories like this; but I take an alternate view. He should be made to live out the rest of his natural existence and every single of those days must be sinfully miserable. Lock him in a windowless room and let him suffer.

 

[journolud]

You only have to look at what’s going on in Melbourne to see the kind of people the police attracts. Complete fucking scumbags.

Way to over generalise and get it totally wrong. You only have to look at the internet to see the type of people the internet attracts, complete fucking idiots

 

[i kne albert davy]

Christ what an absolutely repulsive creature. Murder in the heat of the moment is bad enough. That it can be this calculated? I mean he must have spent weeks and weeks planning this. And the most tragic thing of all is that it was literally going to be any lone woman he could prey on that night.

People vociferously shout for the death penalty with stories like this; but I take an alternate view. He should be made to live out the rest of his natural existence and every single of those days must be sinfully miserable. Lock him in a windowless room and let him suffer.

I'd add to that with a rope slung over a beam for him to look at every day in case he wanted to spare the taxpayer the burden of looking after the piece of shit.

 

[bluetonium]

I like to think of myself as a fair and humane person. Yet things like this really test my resolve when pondering how society can get anything from his continued existence.

 

[youngbob]

He did not use a police car.
It was a hire car.

Fair point. Rest of my argument still stands, though. And no reason why, to Sarah and the unsuspecting public, that it wasn't an unmarked car.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Difficult one to call, this. The abuse of trust, the planning and premeditation, the targeting of a lone female, the mental suffering she must have endured, the rape and the destruction of the body collectively point to a whole life tariff, but his guilty pleas have to be taken into account for public policy reasons.

I'm guessing a minimum tarrif of 40 years, which pretty much amounts to the same as a whole life tariff. Imagine being nearly 90 and being released from prison after 40 years inside, in the unlikely event he got parole. Anyone would be absolutely bewildered and terrified