Double killer facing life in jail for a second time

Sarah Mayhew was found dead in April.

Sarah Mayhew, 38, was found dead in Rowdown Fields, New Addington, south London on April 2 (Metropolitan Police/PA) (PA Archive)

A double murderer is facing life in jail for a second time after killing a woman and dumping her dismembered body in a park while out on licence after being freed from prison.

Sarah Mayhew, 38, was found dead in Rowdown Fields, New Addington, south London, after police were alerted to human remains on April 2.

Couple Steve Sansom, 45, and Gemma Watts, 49, were arrested and charged with murdering Ms Mayhew between March 7 and April 3.

Sansom, of Burnell Road, Sutton, south-west London, previously admitted murder and perverting the course of justice by dismembering Ms Mayhew’s body, distributing the parts at “various locations” and cleaning up the scene.

On Thursday, Watts, of Featherbed Lane, New Addington, pleaded guilty to murder and perverting the course of justice, but denied three charges of making indecent images of a child, which will lie on the court file.

After Watts’ plea at the Old Bailey, Judge Mark Lucraft KC adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed in January and said the only sentence that could be passed for both defendants was a life sentence.

It means Sansom is facing his second life sentence, after being jailed for robbing and slashing the neck of a minicab driver in the 1990s to buy Christmas presents.

He was freed from prison on licence in 2019 after his case was considered by the Parole Board, and was under probation supervision when he killed for a second time.

The two were said to have known Ms Mayhew, who lived in New Addington, on the outskirts of Croydon.

Sansom is believed to use a profile name of Red Rum on Facebook, which is murder spelt backwards.

On March 10, a post appeared on the Red Rum account saying: “Best friends are those who don’t say anything when you show up at their door with a dead body. They just grab a shovel and follow you.”

Members of Ms Mayhew’s family attended the short court hearing.

At a previous hearing for Watts, prosecutor Tom Little KC said: “The prosecution case here is that on the night of March 8 the victim was murdered in the co-defendant’s (Sansom’s) property, with both the defendants being present, and thereafter there was both a significant clear-up operation and the disposal of the body of the deceased.”

Watts, who was linked to the crime scene by phone evidence, was remanded into custody.

Sansom was jailed for life in May 1999 after admitting murder and robbery on Christmas Eve the previous year, when he ordered a cab to take him home from East Croydon.

His victim, 59-year-old married father-of-two Terence Boyle, was described as “a quiet, gentle, unassuming family man”.

He crawled dying from his cab after Sansom attacked him and stole £25.

Sansom, then 20, laughed afterwards and told a friend: “His kids are going to have to see him in hospital over Christmas,” the court heard at the time.

Killers handed life sentences spend the rest of their life on licence if they are released from prison, and have to comply with certain conditions, including being subject to supervision by probation officials.

An investigation is usually carried out when criminals commit another serious offence while on licence or under probation supervision.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said: “This was a terrible crime and our thoughts remain with the friends and family of Sarah Mayhew.

“A serious further offence review is currently under way, and we will share the findings of the review with Ms Mayhew’s family.”

The Government department is yet to confirm whether any disciplinary action has been taken against any probation staff over the incident.