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Sarah Everard murderer Wayne Couzens, of Deal, moved from HMP Belmarsh to HMP Frankland

15:45, 15 December 2021

updated: 19:39, 15 December 2021

Murderer Wayne Couzens has been moved to a new prison.

The man who killed Sarah Everard while a serving policeman has been transferred from Belmarsh in south London to HMP Frankland in County Durham.

Wayne Couzens has been moved to another jail
Wayne Couzens has been moved to another jail

It is the same jail that holds inmates from some of the worst criminal cases such as convicted Chillenden murderer Michael Stone, serial murderer Levi Bellfield, child killer Ian Huntley and cop killer David Bieber.

Couzens, formerly of Freemen's Way, Deal, was given a whole life sentence at the Old Bailey on September 30 and Belmarsh would only have been a local prison for his short term stay.

As a serving armed Metropolitan Police PC, he kidnapped Ms Everard, 33, on March 3 this year in south London and took her all the way to Dover.

He had made a bogus arrest, claiming he was taking her in for breaching Covid rules during a period of full national lockdown.

He changed from a hire car to his own vehicle in North Military Road and drove her to a rural area near the town where he raped and strangled her.

Murder victim Sarah Everard
Murder victim Sarah Everard

After the marketing executive's disappearance police poured into Dover district to search for clues, focusing in Dover town on North Military Road and nearby Centre Road where Couzens once worked in a garage.

Police arrested Couzens at his home, on March 9, and searched it and parts of Sandwich.

The remains of Ms Everard were found in woodland near Great Chart, Ashford, the next day.

Couzens, who turns 49 next Monday, admitted kidnap, rape and murder in a court hearing in the summer.

Stone, from Gillingham and now aged 61, was convicted of the murders of mother and daughter Lin and Megan Russell, aged 45 and six, at Chillenden near Canterbury.

A police search in the Great Chart, area where Ms Everard's remains were found, March 2021.Picture: Barry Goodwin
A police search in the Great Chart, area where Ms Everard's remains were found, March 2021.Picture: Barry Goodwin

The attack was on July 9, 1996 and Stone was also convicted of the attempted murder of second child Josie Russell, then aged nine. He is expected to remain in prison at least until 2023.

He has protested his innocence ever since, despite being convicted again at a retrial and losing an appeal. His sister Barbara continues to spearhead a campaign to clear his name.

Huntley, now 47, murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002.

He has a minimum sentence of 40 years.

Bieber, now 55, was a fugitive from his native country, the United States. He shot dead unarmed PC Ian Broadhurst in Leeds in 2003 and tried to kill two of his colleagues.

The judged recommended he should never be freed.

Bellfield, now 53, was found guilty of the murders of two women, Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange in south west London in 2003 and 2004, and was later convicted of the murder of teenager Milly Dowler in Surrey in 2002.

He was given two whole life tariffs, meaning he will never be considered for parole.

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