Wayne Couzens, 48, abducted Everard on March 3 while she was walking home from a friend’s house in south London. He had pleaded guilty to murder, rape and kidnap.

Couzens was part of the London Metropolitan Police’s (MET) elite diplomatic protection unit at the time of Everard’s killing.

On Wednesday, at the outset of his two-day sentencing hearing, the court heard he had falsely accused Everard of breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules, then handcuffed and arrested her before driving her far outside of London.

He then raped and killed her, before burning the 33-year-old’s body.

Justice Adrian Fulford described the case as “devastating, tragic and wholly brutal”. He said Couzens went “hunting a lone female to kidnap and rape,” having planned the crime in “unspeakably” grim detail.

“There’s no evidence of genuine contrition,” Fulford told Couzens on Thursday.

Everard’s family was in court to see her killer jailed. On Wednesday, they gave emotional statements describing the harrowing impact of her death.

“No punishment that you receive will ever compare to the pain and torture that you have inflicted on us,” her father, Jeremy, told Couzens.