Wayne Couzens Among Five Murderers Set To Have Their Prison Sentence Reviewed By Senior Judges

Former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens is one of five murderers set to have their prison sentence reviewed by senior judges in the Royal Courts of Justice today (May 4).

Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021, and Ian Stewart, who murdered his wife in 2010 and fiancee in 2016, will have their whole life terms reviewed after they appealed their sentences.

A whole life term is handed down in the most serious cases when a judge believes a person should never be considered for release.

Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes, who were jailed for 29 and 21 years respectively in December 2021 for the murder of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, will also have their sentences reviewed after they appealed their jail terms.

However, the Attorney General Suella Braverman has also made an application for their sentences to be reconsidered in case they were "unduly lenient".

Ms Braverman has also made an application for the sentence of Jordan Monaghan, who was jailed for a minimum of 40 years for murdering his partner and two young children, to be reconsidered to see if it is unduly lenient.

Five senior judges are set to review the sentences at the Royal Courts of Justice today.

Couzens was handed a whole life order in September for the murder of 33-year-old marketing executive Ms Everard.

The Metropolitan Police firearms officer used his warrant card and handcuffs to kidnap her as she walked home, using COVID-19 lockdown rules as the premise for a false arrest in south London.

Stewart murdered his wife Diane Stewart in 2010 before murdering his fiancee Helen Bailey six years later.

The double murderer denied killing Mrs Stewart who died at their family home in Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, on 25 June 2010.

The 47-year-old's cause of death was recorded at the time as Sudden Death in Epilepsy (Sudep).

Police reopened the case after Stewart was convicted of the murder of his fiancee, children's book author Helen Bailey, whose body was found in the cesspit of the £1.5m home they shared in Royston in Hertfordshire in 2016.

Tustin and Hughes were each jailed after Arthur, who was Hughes' son, was poisoned, starved and beaten to death in a prolonged campaign of "evil abuse" in Solihull, West Midlands.

Monaghan, 30, obstructed the airways of daughter Ruby, aged 24 days, and Logan, 21 months, in January and August 2013.

Both murders took place in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Six years later, the gambling addict killed his new girlfriend, Evie Adams, 23, with a drug overdose.