Couple facing life in prison after admitting murdering woman and dumping dismembered body parts

21 November 2024, 13:56

A couple are facing life in jail after they admitted murdering a woman and dumping her dismembered body parts.

Gemma Watts, 49, and Steve Sansom, 45, were arrested earlier this year and charged with murdering Sarah Mayhew between March 7 and April 3.

Police were alerted after body parts - including arms, legs and a head - 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.

Previously, a court heard Mayhew's body was found “cut up in to a number of parts using power tools”.

It was also heard that Sarah's head was shaved prior to her death.

The defendants were said to have known the victim, who lived in New Addington, on the outskirts of Croydon.

Sansom is believed to use a profile name of Red Rum on Facebook, which is murder spelt backwards.

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."

Sansom, of Burnell Road, Sutton, south-west London, had previously 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.

On Thursday, Watts, of Featherbed Lane, New Addington, pleaded guilty to murder and perverting the course of justice, but denied three charges of making indecent images of a child, which will lie on the court file.

After Watts' plea at the Old Bailey, Judge Mark Lucraft KC adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed in January.

The judge said that the only sentence that could be passed for both defendants was a life sentence.

Members of Ms Mayhew's family attended the short court hearing.

At a previous hearing for Watts, prosecutor Tom Little KC said: "The prosecution case here is that on the night of March 8 the victim was murdered in the co-defendant's (Sansom's) property, with both the defendants being present, and thereafter there was both a significant clear-up operation and the disposal of the body of the deceased."

Watts, who was linked to the crime scene by phone evidence, was remanded into custody.