Convicted killer, 45, admits murder of woman whose body was cut up and dumped in park and river nine miles apart
26 September 2024, 14:29 | Updated: 26 September 2024, 15:08
A convicted killer has admitted murdering a woman whose remains were found in Croydon earlier this year.
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Body parts - inlcuding arms, legs and a head - belonging to 38-year-old Sarah Mayhew were found in Rowdown Fields in New Addington on April 2.
Her torso was found nine miles away in the River Wandle at Rawnsley Avenue, Mitcham.
She was last seen alive in Sutton, south-west London, on the evening of March 8.
At the Old Bailey on Thursday, Steven Sansom, 45, pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Mayhew and perverting the course of justice by dismembering her body, disposing of it in various locations, and then cleaning up the crime scene between March 7 and April 3 this year.
Sansom, of Burnell Road, Sutton, south-west London, appeared by video-link from HMP Belmarsh wearing glasses, grey tracksuit bottoms and a grey T-shirt, and loudly proclaimed his guilty pleas.
He denied three counts of possessing indecent images of children, which judge Mark Lucraft KC said would lie on file.
Sansom was previously convicted in 1999 of the murder of a cab driver.
Gemma Watts, 49, of Featherbed Lane in New Addington, is also charged with murdering Ms Mayhew and perverting the course of justice.
She was not asked to enter pleas when she appeared at the same hearing from HMP Bronzefield.
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The Metropolitan Police said they were called to the scene after a dog walker saw his animal had uncovered a human bone.
Arms, legs and a head were then found nearby and identified by DNA.
A court later heard the body of Sarah Mayhew was found “cut up in to a number of parts using power tools”.
An examination of her body found two small vertebrae were broken in her voicebox, there was bruising to the skull and her head had been shaved.
It is believed Ms Mayhew was killed at a residential property on the night of March 8 before she was cut up and dumped.
