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A double killer who murdered a woman and dumped her dismembered body in a south London park will spend the rest of his life in jail.
Steven Sansom was out of prison on licence for another murder when he killed Sarah Mayhew, 38, and dumped her remains in Rowdown Fields, New Addington, last spring.
The 45-year-old builder and his partner Gemma Watts, 49, had shared a relationship of sado-masochistic violence which saw them plan a “bloodthirsty and wicked fantasy” together.
Both admitted murder and perverting the course of justice by dismembering Ms Mayhew’s body, distributing the parts at different locations and cleaning up the scene. On Thursday, Mrs Justice Cutts sentenced Samson to life imprisonment for murder with a whole life order, which means he will never be released from prison.
The Old Bailey had heard how Sansom is believed to have used the profile name ‘Red Rum’, spelling murder backwards.
Watts held back tears as she was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years, and will spend the rest of her life on licence.
The judge said: “[Ms Mayhew’s] fear and suffering must have been acute as she realised why she was there and what was happening.
“She was an innocent woman lured to that flat to die in order for you to both act out your bloodthirsty and wicked fantasy.”
Prosecutor Tom Little KC said: “It is a murder which the prosecution submit involved sexual and/or sadistic conduct.
“Having committed the murder they then made very extensive efforts to pervert the course of justice over a number of days.
“Prior to the murder the defendants had exchanged a range of depraved messages including those indicating a desire on their part to kill victims whilst involved in sexual activity with them, with a knife or knives.”
Sansom, from Sutton in southwest London, and Watts, from New Addington, sat in the dock as details about their relationship were revealed, including a stream of messages about bestiality, humiliation and causing hurt.
A screenshot of a note sent by Watts to Sansom on 7 September 2023, said: “I am writing this of my own free will. Should any serious injury, or even death occur whilst I am with Steven Sansom let it be made fully understood that I enter the act of violent, dangerous sex games with Steven Samson of my own free will.”
Mr Little added: “Given what was subsequently to happen to Sarah Mayhew this murderous, sexual and sadistic discussion was manifestly not an idle fantasy.”
Ms Mayhew, who lived in New Addington, on the outskirts of Croydon, was never seen again after she joined Sansom, whom she had met years before on a dating site, at his ground floor flat in Sutton at about 11pm on 8 March 2024. Watts was already at the property.
Mr Little said: “From that point in time she was never seen again and she never left that property alive.”
Some of her body parts were found more than eight miles away in Rowdown Fields just over three weeks later on 2 April 2024.
Her torso was discovered much later in the River Wandle and some pieces of evidence were destroyed or disposed of by the defendants, the court heard.
The prosecution believe Ms Mayhew must have been killed or incapacitated inside Sansom’s flat on the night of 8 to 9 March, before dismembering and disposing of her body.
Sansom later tried to justify what they had done, saying: “We’re not evil, we done the world a service.”
In the days after the murder was believed to have taken place, Sansom and Watts were seen walking by the River Wandle and near his flat. At one point he was seen pulling a suitcase that was “noticeably heavier” than before because “it now contained Sarah Mayhew’s torso”, Mr Little said.
The defendants later messaged each other and joked about disposing of someone in a suitcase, the court heard.
DNA tests carried out on blood traces in a bucket, in the kitchen and the lounge floor and walls at Sansom’s flat showed they belonged to Ms Mayhew.
Her bloodstains were also found in the bedroom and bathroom sink.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Mayhew was remembered by her mother Angela as a “beautiful, pretty girl” and she said: “It breaks my heart she is not around.”
Ms Mayhew’s father David thanked the defendants for pleading guilty and saving his grieving family from the ordeal of sitting through a trial of this “horrendous case”.
But he added: “That said whatever sentence you may receive will never compare to the pain you have caused us.
“I ask myself the same question all the time, why did you have to kill her - maybe I will never know?”
Sansom is facing his second life sentence, having been jailed in May 1999 after admitting the murder and robbery of a minicab driver on Christmas Eve the previous year, when he ordered a cab to take him home from East Croydon.
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 Ministry of Justice has confirmed a serious further offence review is underway.
