A British police officer who falsely arrested a woman for breaking coronavirus restrictions, then kidnapped, raped and murdered her, was given a rare whole-life jail term on Thursday.

Wayne Couzens, aged 48, was sentenced a whole-life order in prison for the "grotesque" killing of the 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard under the guise of an arrest, according to reports. "The misuse of a police officer's role such as occurred in this case in order to kidnap, rape and murder a lone victim is of equal seriousness as a murder for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause," he told the court.

Sentencing at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in London, known as the Old Bailey, on Thursday, Lord Justice Fulford said the seriousness of the case, which shocked and outraged the whole nation, was so "exceptionally high" that it warranted a whole life order.

The court had heard how Couzens used his police warrant card and handcuffs to snatch Everard as she walked home from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, on the evening of March 3. The firearms officer then drove to a secluded rural area near Dover in southeastern England where he raped the victim, strangled her with his police-issue belt, and burned her body before dumping the remains in a pond.

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