Wayne Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard in 2021, remains in line for the payout. It includes a five-figure lump sum accessible from next year
Killer cop Wayne Couzens is still in line for a £7,000-a-year pension – funded by taxpayers.
The fiend, who received a whole life sentence after admitting marketing exec Sarah Everard’s 2021 kidnap, rape and murder, remains in line for his Civil Nuclear Constabulary payout. It includes a five-figure lump sum accessible from next year, according to a Freedom of Information request.
Government lawyers have been locked in a legal battle to strip the convicted murderer of his payout from the Constabulary – aka CNC – which guards civil nuclear sites in England and Scotland. But no decision has been made.
Couzens will be able to access the inflation-linked payment for life – alongside a potential £20,000 lump sum – from December 2027.
Andrea Simon, of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said it was ‘unthinkable’ the perpetrator of ‘horrific violence against women’ should keep his retirement payout.
Couzens was a serving Metropolitan Police armed officer when he snatched Sarah off the street in a bogus arrest in 2021. Two months later he pleaded guilty to the horrific crime which shocked the nation.
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan applied to the Home Office to revoke his Metropolitan Police pension, a move that was approved by then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman. It later emerged Couzens had not qualified for enough pension for forfeiture rules to apply though he did not get any money from taxpayers.
But before he joined the Met he spent seven-and-a-half years working for the CNC. He built up a pension thought to be worth around £7,000-a-year by the time he reaches the retirement age of 60 – along with a tax-free lump sum of around £20,000.
In 2021 the CNC recommended his pension be revoked and Mr Khan echoed the call in a letter to then-Energy Secretary Grant Shapps. But public sector pensions can only be forfeited in limited circumstances.
The relevant minister – current Energy Secretary Ed Miliband – must also approve a certificate of forfeiture.
As the offence was committed after he left the CNC Government lawyers have been locked in a legal wrangle alongside the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the finance scheme’s administrator, since March 2024. Couzens could claim a reduced pension as early as December 2027 when he turns 55.
CNC chief constable Simon Chesterman said the constabulary was not the pensions authority or administrator of the scheme. He said: “Immediately after Couzens’ conviction in 2021 we made a formal recommendation that any pension entitlements arising from his CNC employment should be forfeited.”
A Department for Energy spokesman said: “We are looking at options to ensure Wayne Couzens does not receive his Civil Nuclear Constabulary pension.”
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