25 years for murderer three decades after being cleared

A FAMILY finally has justice after a “sadistic sexual killer” cleared 30 years ago was jailed for murder.

Lorry driver David Smith, 67, faces more than 25 years in prison for the attack on Sarah Crump, 33, in 1991.

He was originally acquitted at a trial in 1993 at which the escort’s mum warned he would kill again.

Smith went on to commit a similar murder of sex worker Amanda Walker, 21, in 1999, for which he has served 24 years of a life sentence.

Both women were sexually mutilated by the heavily built 6ft 3in killer.

Sarah’s sister, Joanne Platt, told Inner London Crown Court: “I can’t adequately express the pain of knowing what my sister endured. Even after 32 years, having to listen to the details of the attack was excruciating.”

Sarah, a secretary at Wimbledon Hospital, South West London, lived a double life as an escort and her body was found at her Southall flat in 1991.

Smith, inset, had “a history of escalating sexual violence”.

He raped a young mum at knifepoint in 1976 and falsely imprisoned a woman in a car around a decade later.

He was finally found guilty of Sarah’s murder this week after appeal court judges ordered a retrial because of “new and compelling evidence”. This included Amanda’s similar murder, a cell confession and fingerprints found in Sarah’s flat.

Amanda’s body was found in a shallow grave near the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley, Surrey, six weeks after she disappeared. While on remand awaiting trial for the 1999 murder, Smith had boasted he “got away with it”. Mr Justice Bryan yesterday said he hoped the sentence gave the family “some closure”. He told Smith they would be “safe in the knowledge you…are likely to spend the rest of your life in prison”.