‘Our lives will never be the same’ Sarah Everard murder

‘Our lives will never be the same’ Sarah Everard murder:

The mother of Sarah Everard has said that she is “broken-hearted and distraught” over the tragic murder of her youngest child.

Met Police officer Wayne Couzens handcuffed the 33-year-old pretending to arrest her for breaching covid guidelines.

Couzens abducted her as she walked home from a friend’s house in Clapham on 3 March.

Ms Everard’s mother Susan said she kept her daughter’s dressing gown as it smelt like her. Speaking to Couzen’s sentencing hearing, Susan said “She spent the last hours on this Earth with the very worst of humanity.”

“Sarah died in horrendous circumstances. I go through the sequence of events. I wonder when she realised, she was in mortal danger.

“Burning her body was the final insult. It meant we could never see her sweet face and never say goodbye.

“Our lives will never be the same. We should be a family of five, but now we are four.”

Couzens’ two-day sentencing hearing has been told that Ms Everard’s torment could be summarised as “deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire.”

The 48-year-old worked on Covid patrols in January, the court heard, and so would have known the appropriate formal terms regarding potential breaches.

Couzens, who could be given a whole-life term, has admitted kidnap, murder and rape.