A man who knew murderer Steve Sansom said he saw him acting strange and they had an “awkward” conversation close to where body parts belonging to Sarah Mayhew were found in south London
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Met Police release CCTV of Steve Samson and Gemma Watts
A man has told how he met a murderer close to where body parts were later found and they had an “awkward” conversation.
Builder Steve 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.
A court heard during a sentencing hearing how he and accomplice Gemma Watts attempted to hide her body. Footage was shown of them going to Rowden Fields where Ms Mayhew’s arms and legs were found on the morning of April 2, last year, by a dog walker.
The couple then headed to the River Wandle in Mitcham, where Sansom was spotted by someone who knew him from fishing and giving Sansom haircuts. Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the Old Bailey: “Sansom seemed less talkative than usual, and the conversation was rather awkward”.
The man also said “it seemed strange” when Sansom asked him what he was doing, and last remembered the defendants facing a bush. Ms Mayhew’s torso was later found about a mile downstream. Samson, 45, and his partner Gemma Watts, 49, 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, the Old Bailey heard.
Mrs Justice Cutts sentenced Samson to life imprisonment for murder with a whole life order, which means he will never be released from prison. He was also sentenced to five years for perverting the course of justice to run concurrently.
Watts held back tears as she was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years along with five years for perverting the course of justice to run concurrently. If she is ever released, she will spend the rest of her life on licence.
The judge said both defendants were “equally involved” in the plan to lure Ms Mayhew to Sansom’s flat, adding: “You had lured Sarah to the flat for depraved and violent sexual activity during which she was to be killed. Her fear and suffering must have been acute as she realised why she was there and what was happening.”
The judge added: “She was an innocent woman, lured to that flat to die in order that you both could act out your blood thirsty and wicked fantasy”. Sansom, of Sutton, south-west London, and Watts, of New Addington, sat quietly in the dock as details of their “kinky” sexual relationship – including a stream of messages between them about bestiality, humiliation and causing hurt – were outlined at their sentencing hearing.
They indulged in “depraved conversation about sexual activity” and the graphic messages between them soon evolved into becoming more than fantasy. The judge said that Sansom “had murder in mind” and that Watts, who was obsessed with him, took part in the murder.
The judge added: “There is clear and proper inference in my view that this murder involved sexual and sadistic conduct.” Ms Mayhew, who lived in New Addington, 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 March 8 2024. Watts was already at the property.
Ms Mayhew’s head and limbs were found more than eight miles away in Rowdown Field in New Addington, just over three weeks later on April 2 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.
It is believed Ms Mayhew must have been killed or incapacitated inside Sansom’s flat on the night of March 8 to 9 2024 and, given the messages sent between the defendants in the months before, “it is not credible to conclude that she was killed immediately,” prosecutor Mr Little KC said.
