Double killer and his partner jailed for murdering woman and dismembering her body
Double killer and his partner jailed for murdering woman and dismembering her body
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Steven Sansom, 45, was on licence after being released from prison in 2019 for murdering a cab driver. A double killer who murdered a woman and dumped her dismembered body in a park has been jailed for the rest of his life. Steven Sansom was out of prison on life licence for another murder when he killed Sarah Mayhew, 38, and dumped her remains in Rowdown Fields, New Addington, south London, last spring.
![[Court sketch of Steve Sansom at the Old Bailey]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/30/02/6bed9629ba1ff97bdb7d7ad854cc3ef7Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM4MjU0NTE5-2.75848246.jpg)
The 45-year-old builder and his partner Gemma Watts, 49, had shared a relationship of “sado-masochistic violence” which had seen 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 “various locations” and cleaning up the scene.
![[Sarah Mayhew’s family described her as a ‘beautiful, pretty girl’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/04/12/19/Flowers%20and%20tributes%20left%20for%20Sarah%20Mayhew%20after%20her%20remains%20found%20in%20south%20London%20park.00_00_14_03.Still001.jpg)
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the court: “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.
![[Gemma Watts had acted with Sansom to conceal her body]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/04/11/15/5cee66c0-11bd-4bdf-994e-891a53ea20f5.jpg)
“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, and then have sex with each other whilst covered in the blood of the victim and they even discussed eating human flesh but we do not suggest they did so.”.
