The details of the terrible murder of Sarah Mayhew are almost too appalling to bear, but one question stands out most of all: why was the convicted murderer who killed her free to take Sarah’s life?
Sansom had murdered before, when he was just 19
Sarah, a 38-year-old mother of two, was lured to a flat in south London last March and never seen again. Steve Sansom and his partner, Gemma Watts, killed Sarah in a manner which involved sexual and sadistic conduct. The killers had previously exchanged messages detailing a desire to kill people with a knife or knives while engaged in sexual activity. After’s Sarah’s murder, the couple dismembered her and dumped her remains in different locations around London.
A horrific, brutal crime made even worse by the killers’ efforts to evade justice. But not one which came from nowhere. Sansom had murdered before, when he was just 19. On Christmas Eve 1998, he attacked, robbed and killed a taxi driver.
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