Convicted killer pleaded guilty to Sarah Mayhew’s gruesome murder in September and yesterday at the Old Bailey, his partner, Gemma Watts, also admitted murder
Murder victim: Sarah Mayhew was killed in March by Sansom and Watts
The couple who killed Sarah Mayhew and dismembered her body will be given life sentences, after Gemma Watts yesterday entered a guilty plea to murder and perverting the course of justice at an Old Bailey hearing.
Watts’ boyfriend, Steve Sansom, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
The gruesome murder will now also prompt an urgent case review by the parole service, as Sansom was out of prison on licence, having previously been convicted of the 1998 New Addington murder of taxi driver Terrence Boyle. Sansom was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years for that murder, and was released on licence in 2019.
Convicted murderers 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.
Murder search: a police search was launched in Rowdown Fields after a dog walker discovered body parts in the park
Last night, the Ministry of Justice confirmed a serious further offence review is under way. It is yet to confirm whether any disciplinary action has been taken against any probation staff.
Members of Sarah Mayhew’s family attended yesterday’s brief hearing at the Central Criminal Court, where Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, the Recorder of London, said: “The only sentence which can be passed on both defendants is a life sentence.” Sentencing will take place in January.
Sarah Mayhew was 38 and lived in New Addington.
Her savage murder shocked the nation and was the cause of fear and anguish in New Addington, after human body parts were discovered in Rowdown Fields in April. Further searches a month later found more human remains in the River Wandle at Mitcham.
Yesterday, Watts, 49, of Forestdale, Featherbed Lane, pleaded guilty to murder and perverting the course of justice.
She and Sansom, 45, of Burnell Road in Sutton, both denied three counts of making indecent images of children. The Crown Prosecution Service has decided not to proceed with those charges.
The defendants were said to have known the victim.
Sansom is believed to use a Facebook profile name of Red Rum – murder spelt backwards.
Murderer: Steve Sansom
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.”
Mayhew was last seen alive in Sutton on the evening of March 8.
In court yesterday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said: “On the night of March 8, the victim was murdered in the defendant [Sansom’s] property but with both of the defendants being present. Thereafter there was a significant clear-up operation and also the disposal of the body of the deceased.
“This defendant [Watts] can be linked both in terms of telephone evidence to the property at the time as well as the victim’s SIM card being in her phone for a period of time.
“There is quite a significant ongoing investigation in relation to whereabouts of the entirety of the deceased’s body on the basis the deceased’s body was certainly cut up into a number of parts with the use of power tools.
“This defendant twice appears to be connected with the defendant at the material time in relation to the destruction of the body.
“Ms Mayhew was still alive on March 8 when she met this defendant [Sansom] and went to his home where she was murdered by the two defendants. She had left a gentleman’s house and said she was going to this defendant’s house.
“She was last heard from by her father who she contacted on WhatsApp. At half past eight that night she was seen on CCTV at a cashpoint with the coat and bag.
Murderer: Gemma Watts
“The following morning Ms Watts was seen leaving the address and walked to the back garden gate and left. This defendant later that afternoon went to B&Q in Sutton and bought a hacksaw and hacksaw bucket – he already had some power tools. Ms Watts bought bleach and clothes before returning to the property.”
According to Mr Little, the torso of the victim remains missing. The prosecutor said that the victim was found with bruising to the skull and that her head had been shaved.
When she made her first court appearance, Watts had appeared with a black eye. “Ms Watts said injury to her face was due to the fact she and this defendant were into rough sex,” the prosecutor told the court.
Police investigations had linked Watts by mobile telephone records to Rowdown Fields on three occasions. “Ms Watts’ telephone co-locates with this defendant [Sansom] on the fields. There is a voice note in which Mr Sansom tells Ms Watts they had done the world a service and they were not evil.”
As previously reported, it was on Christmas Eve 1998 that Sansom, then aged 19, murdered cab driver Terrence Boyle. Sansom, then unemployed and living at Applegarth, had taken a taxi from Croydon town centre out to New Addington.
When the taxi reached his destination, Sansom cut the throat of the 59-year-old, and stole £25.
Boyle 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.
Read more: Killer of Sarah Mayhew has previous conviction for murder
Read more: Murder victim’s body parts discovered in River Wandle
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