WAYNE Couzens, the ex-police officer who kidnapped, raped, and murdered 33-year-old Sarah Everard has been given a whole life sentence and told that he will die behind bars.

I wouldn’t bet on it - unless he contracts a fatal illness or one or more of his fellow inmates take it to mete out the punishment that his crime truly warrants.

At some stage a bunch of bleeding-heart, liberal do-gooders on a parole board will decide that the monster has ‘paid for his crime’ and free him to get on with the rest of his worthless life.

The people who really do serve whole life sentences are the family and friends of the victims who fall prey to killers like Couzens.

In any truly just society, Couzens would have been sentenced to death.

The only way he can be said to have truly paid for his heinous crime is for society to cut short his life.

As it is, decent, hard-working taxpayers (including Sarah’s family and friends) will be contributing to the £120-a-day cost of looking after Couzens for the next 20, 30 or 40 years.

And he will be housed, fed and looked after in conditions that would be the envy of many, many of the most deprived in our society.

ROBERT READMAN

Norwich Avenue West, Bournemouth