Sex fiend finally admits to murder of model, 18, and horrific attacks on two other women
A SERIAL sex attacker jailed for the rape and murder of teenage model Sally Anne Bowman has finally admitted the crime.
Mark Dixie, 46, serving life for Sally Anne’s murder, confessed during an interview with detectives 10 years after he hacked the 18-year-old to death in 2005.
The confession was revealed yesterday as the former pub chef pleaded guilty to two more sex crimes in 1987 and 2002 via video link from a high security jail.
However, police believe there could still be more victims. Senior Investigator Chris Le Pere said: “Dixie is a dangerous sexual predator, who I believe carried out attacks on other women. I’d ask people to take a look at Dixie’s photograph and speak to police if they think they were a victim.”
The court was told how in 1987, Dixie, then 16, attacked a 16-year-old girl in a car park, hitting her over the head with a chef’s “steel” used for sharpening knives.
He then raped her, tied her up in a car and started a small fire on the front seat.
Struggle
The terrified victim managed to struggle free and ran for help, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.
Dixie struck again 15 years later when he indecently assaulted a young woman in a stairwell. At one stage, he snarled at her: “I am going to kill you.”
Her ordeal ended when a woman walking nearby heard a commotion and demanded to know what was going on. Dixie replied: “Nothing, just a row with my girlfriend.”
The victim managed to cry out: “Help, help, he’s attacking me.” Dixie fled and the police were called, it was said.
Both attacks happened in Croydon, south London, where he stabbed Sally Anne to death in September 2005.
The aspiring model was spotted by Dixie as she rowed with her boyfriend in a car outside her home.
Lurking out of sight nearby, 6ft 3in Dixie waited until Sally Anne was alone before pouncing. Dixie stabbed the slightly built teenager seven times in the back and neck. He then raped her before escaping.
Dixie was identified as Sally Anne’s killer after he was arrested after a pub brawl in Crawley, West Sussex, in June 2006.
DNA taken at the time linked him to the killing. Jailed for life at the Old Bailey in 2008, he was ordered to serve at least 34 years before being considered for release.
Yesterday Crispin Aylett, prosecuting, said Dixie took nearly a decade to confess.
He said: “He wrote to police indicating he wanted to tell the truth about Sally Anne. He also admitted two other serious attacks on women that had taken place some time before.”
Dixie appeared calm on the video link from HMP Frankland in County Durham when he admitted rape, indecent assault and grievous bodily harm. He will be sentenced in September.
Outlining the 1987 attack, Mr Aylett said: “He raped her in her car. He used a silk tie from her blouse to tie her wrists, made her lie on the back seat and tied her feet with the seatbelt. He then set fire to the front seat of the car.”
Snorted
When detectives told Dixie in an interview they had already linked him to that attack by a fingerprint found on a rear wheel arch, he said: “I will give you another one as well,” the prosecutor said.
Dixie, who smoked cannabis and snorted cocaine from the age of 12, was first convicted at 16 for holding a knife to a woman’s throat and fondling her breasts in Stockwell, south London. In 1988, he was convicted of indecent exposure.
Five years later he moved to Australia where he carried out several sex attacks.
And last year he admitted the violent sexual assault of a young woman on Spain’s Costa del Sol in 2003.
Innocent Dutchman Romano Van Dussen spent 12 years behind bars after being wrongly convicted of that crime.
When freed he said: “I had a job, a life, a family. Now I have nothing.”