Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens is still in line for a taxpayer-funded £7,000-a-year pension.
Couzens was sentenced to a whole life order after admitting to killing Ms Everard in 2021 but is still set to receive his Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) pension.
This includes a five-figure lump sum which he could be able to access from next year.
Lawyers for the Government have been locked in a legal battle to have Couzens’s pension taken away but no decision has been made.
Couzens worked at the CNC, which protects nuclear sites and materials in England and Scotland, for more than seven years before joining the Metropolitan Police.
In March 2021 while a serving officer, Couzens used his police warrant to lure Ms Everard into a fake arrest while she was walking home.
He abducted, raped and killed her in a murder which shocked the nation.
In 2023, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan successfully applied to the then-home secretary Suella Braverman to have any money Couzens could have earned in pension payments while a Met officer forfeited.
Wayne Couzens is currently serving a whole life order for the murder of Sarah Everard but is still in line to receive his pension from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary
Sarah Everard was killed by Couzens after he lured her into a fake arrest using his police warrant in 2021
But Couzens remains eligible for his CNC pension, which he built up to a reported £7,000 a year by the time he reaches the retirement age of 60, the Telegraph reported.
He is also in line for a tax-free lump sum of around £20,000.
In October 2021 the CNC recommended his pension be revoked and Sir Sadiq agreed in an April 2023 letter to the then-energy secretary Grant Shapps.
However public sector pensions can only be forfeited in limited circumstances.
Ed Miliband, the current energy secretary, would need to approve a certificate of forfeiture but because Couzens’s crime was committed after he left the CNC, government lawyers have been pursuing a complex legal challenge.
The Government has not commented on the exact nature of the hurdles to forfeiting Couzens’s entitlement but the rules of the UK Atomic Energy Agency’s rules state that only ‘an offence in connection with any employment to which this scheme applies’ can justify removing a pension.
Andrea Simon, of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, told the Telegraph it was ‘unthinkable’ the perpetrator of ‘horrific violence against women’ should keep his retirement fund.
Andrea Simon, of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said it was ‘unthinkable’ Couzens should be allowed to keep his pension
‘Steps should be taken to strip Couzens of his Civil Nuclear Constabulary pension in the same way that he has been stripped of benefits earned while serving as a Met Police officer.
‘We are clear that if loopholes like this exist for convicted murderers, they must be closed,’ she added.
Just 33 NHS workers have lost their pension since the 1970s, including the serial killer Harold Shipman.
Simon Chesterman, Chief Constable of the CNC, told the Telegraph the CNC was not the pensions authority or administrator of Couzens’s scheme.
‘Immediately after Couzens’ conviction in 2021 we made a formal recommendation that any pension entitlements arising from his CNC employment should be forfeited,’ he said.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said it was ‘looking at options to ensure Wayne Couzens does not receive his Civil Nuclear Constabulary pension’.
