Steve Sansom, the man charged with the savage murder of Sarah Mayhew earlier this year, had been jailed previously for killing a New Addington mini-cab driver in 1998.
Murderer: Steve Sansom, as sketched by the court artist on a previous appearance
Reporting restrictions on Sansom’s previous murder conviction were lifted today after the 45-year-old, giving an address in Sutton, appeared by videolink at the Old Bailey and admitted murdering a woman whose body parts were found in Croydon and nearby areas.
Sarah Mayhew, 38, was last seen alive in Sutton on the evening of March 8.
The court had been told previously that Mayhew was murdered, then her body was “cut up into a number of parts with the use of power tools” and dumped in Rowdown Fields, near where some of her family live in New Addington.
Mayhew’s arms, legs and head were discovered by a dog walker in the New Addington park on April 2, but her torso remained undiscovered until contractors carrying out cleaning work in the River Wandle near Rawnsley Avenue, Mitcham, found the remains in May.
An examination of her body found two small vertebrae were broken in her voice box, bruising to her skull and her head had been shaved.
Murder victim: Sarah Mayhew
Today, Sansom pleaded guilty to murder and to perverting the course of justice by dismembering the body, disposing of it in various locations, and then cleaning up the crime scene.
Sarah Mayhew’s father, who was in court, appeared to shed a tear as the pleas were made.
The judge in the case, Recorder of London Mark Lucraft KC, said this morning that reporting Sansom’s previous conviction for murder will not prejudice this trial.
On Christmas Eve 1998, Sansom, then aged 19, murdered cab driver Terrence Boyle in New Addington.
It was reported at the time that Sansom, then unemployed and living at Applegarth, New Addington, had taken a taxi from Croydon town centre out to New Addington, where he cut the throat of 59-year-old Boyle.
Boyle, who was 59 and a father-of-two, staggered to a nearby house to call for help but collapsed and died on the doorstep before the ambulance arrived. His wife Emelin, said her husband had been working overtime to earn enough money to buy Christmas presents for their sons, Matthew and James, who were then aged 11 and 16.
Today, Sansom appeared by videolink from Belmarsh Prison. He is to be sentenced at a later date.
Co-defendant, Gemma Watts, 49, from Forestdale, faces the same charges. She was not asked to enter pleas today and her next hearing was scheduled for November 15.
Sansom pleaded not guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC indicated it would not be in the public interest to pursue the indecent images charges against Sansom given his previous conviction for murder, and today’s guilty pleas. Those charges would be left on file.
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