Jailed for 22 years, the father who murdered a prostitute and raped two others in drug-fuelled frenzy
‘As you attacked her she must have been terrified’
A FATHER of two who murdered a prostitute before raping two other women next to her body has been jailed for life.
Car salesman Steven Mathieson was high on cocaine when he stabbed prostitute Luciana Maurer 44 times in his own home while his four-year-old son slept in a nearby bedroom.
He then raped two other escort girls while the mother of his children was on a Christmas night out.
Yesterday, as Mathieson was sentenced to life, to serve a minimum of 22 years, he was described as an ‘everyday, slightly boring’ man whose only previous contact with the police came when he was stopped without a seatbelt.
But beneath his respectable family man image, Mathieson had a darker double life, as a heavy cocaine user in serious debt who often called sex phone lines.
He is understood to have secretly visited Thailand to sleep with prostitutes and last spring joined drugs help group Cocaine Anonymous.
His partner of ten years, Susanne Thorgersen, was said to be ‘hysterical’ after learning of the horrific attacks.
Mathieson stabbed Miss Maurer, 23, and slit her throat before two other prostitutes he had ordered arrived at his detached home in a middle-class cul-de-sac in Falkirk, Stirlingshire.
He led them to the bloodbath in the bedroom before forcing them at knifepoint to dance for him and raping them both before they escaped.
At the killer’s sentencing, his lawyer Donald Findlay said: ‘Mr Mathieson is an ordinary, everyday, probably slightly boring man who, if he returned to his ordinary, everyday, slightly boring life would be no risk to anyone.
‘That fits my belief that the evil that lies behind this is concerned with his use and abuse of cocaine.’
He added: ‘Sending for three prostitutes to come to his home while his young son is asleep in a bedroom and his wife could come home at any time is an insane thing to do.
‘He booked one and then for good measure he booked two more and that, in my submission, reinforces the whole madness of this episode.
‘I think it’s fair to say that on any view this is one of the most extraordinary cases I have ever encountered.’
Detective Inspector Dave Pinkney, from Police Scotland’s major investigations team, said the case was a ‘one- off ’ which had happened in a very quiet area and left the community in shock.
He added: ‘I have no idea how this came about and Mr Mathieson has provided no motive.
‘There is no rationale or reason for what he did. The only contact he has had with police prior to this was when he was once stopped for not wearing a seatbelt.’
Mathieson, said by friends to be a keen fisherman, sobbed loudly in the dock at the High Court in Livingston as the sentence was read out.
Last month he pleaded guilty to the murder of Miss Maurer at his home and guilty to the rape and abduction of two other women, aged 22 and 26.
The horrific attacks took place on December 4, a day which Mathieson’s f a mil y had s pent Chri s t mas shopping.
Miss Thorgersen left her partner with their two sons to join a work night out and he took them for a meal before dropping his older son at his grandmother’s.
Returning home with his four-yearold son, shortly after putting him to bed and texting Miss Thorgersen with the message, ‘Have a good night, love you’, the 38-year-old called a sex line for an escort.
Miss Maurer, a mother of one who had moved to Scotland from London only days earlier, arrived at 11pm.
Minutes later, high on cocaine, Mathieson launched a frenzied attack, stabbing her 44 separate times and cutting her throat in an upstairs bedroom.
Then he sent his partner a second text message, saying: ‘Sorry xx.’
Miss Maurer, whose family were expecting her to travel home to Romania for Christmas, sent between 300400 euros (£221-£295) every month home to her family and seven-year-old daughter. Her parents had no idea she was working in the sex trade and believed she was a waitress. Her parents spoke to her on the phone days before her death and she told them she would return by Christmas.
At the time of her death, a fund was set up on Facebook to raise the money needed to repatriate Miss Maurer’s body to her home country for burial.
Sentencing Mathieson yesterday, Lord Bannatyne condemned the killer’s ‘terrible and senseless’ crimes, telling him: ‘You contacted this young woman and had her come to your home. Within a very short time of her arrival you subjected her to a sustained and brutal attack.
‘You stabbed this defenceless young woman on approximately 44 occasions. As you subjected her to this attack, she must have been terrified.’
The murder was followed by two other prostitutes, who cannot be named for legal reasons, arriving at Mathieson’s house.
As his son slept, he answered the door and led them upstairs. Last month, as the case was heard at Glasgow Sheriff Court, advocate depute Jane Farquharson said: ‘ Mathieson went into the bedroom first. He put on the light and hung back at the door whilst the women walked in.
‘As soon as they entered the bedroom, they saw the deceased, lying on her back and on top of the bed.’
The women were threatened by Mathieson, who pulled two knives from a chest of drawers and took their mobile phones.
Miss Farquharson said: ‘ He told both to remove their clothing and to dance for him. In fear of what he might do and, with the body of the deceased lying on the bed in front of them, each did as they were told.’
The murderer told one woman to lie on the bed beside Miss Maurer’s mutilated body and raped both of them before ordering them downstairs where he raped them again.
The women said he told them: ‘I’m going to be many years in that prison because I killed that girl. I’ve done this to show my wife something.’
His victims managed to escape only
when Mathieson thought his partner had returned and went to a window. Fleeing naked from the house, with Mathieson in pursuit, they found help from a neighbour in a nearby flat.
Their attacker then dialled 999, telling police: ‘I’ve been high on drugs and I’ve killed a prostitute.’
He will serve 22 years in prison before being eligible for parole, with his actions described by Lord Bannatyne as ‘wholly depraved’.
Referring to the two Eastern European women Mathieson raped, who bravely stayed in Scotland to bring him to justice, the judge said: ‘You subjected them to a sustained, degrading and terrifying attack, involving their being repeatedly raped.
‘Throughout this attack they must have feared for their lives. A particularly appalling part of the attack on these women was that the initial part of it took place in the bedroom where the body of the deceased was lying.’
The only explanation for the crimes, the judge said, was the large amount of cocaine Mathieson had taken. But he said this in no way excused the horrific crimes, stating: ‘That was a conscious and deliberate act by you.’
In addition to the life sentence, Mathieson’s name will remain on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
The widowed mother of Mathieson, an only child, was too upset to speak at her home in Falkirk last night.
But it emerged that Mathieson’s father, Raymond, died of a drug overdose aged 40 in 1993.
Mathieson’s partner, who is believed to still live in the family home where he killed Miss Maurer, could not be contacted.
But a source close to the family said: ‘ The victim did not deserve what happened to her and neither did Susanne.
‘Susanne is trying to put her life back together but it is difficult.’
A former schoolfriend, who did not want to be named, said: ‘Mathie was quite a quiet guy, he didn’t stand out in any way – he was just a real Mr Ordinary, the kind of guy you wouldn’t look twice at.
‘He was never popular with women but I heard he had a temper, especially when drinking, and was possessive with his girlfriends.
‘When I bumped into him a few years ago he said he had travelled to Bangkok to sleep with hookers while telling his partner he was on a work training course in Belgium.
‘ In recent years, I had heard Mathie had got himself heavily into cocaine and regularly hired prostitutes locally.’
Mr Pinkney said: ‘ These women were subject to a brutal and depraved attack which has been extremely traumatic for them, their families and the wider community.
‘I’d like to commend the bravery of the two young women and Luciana’s family throughout the investigation, and thank them for their assistance with our inquiries.
‘Police Scotland welcome this sentence and although nothing can undo Mathieson’s actions that night, I hope this will give his victims and all those affected by his crimes some sense of closure.
Chief Inspector Mandy Paterson, local area commander, said: ‘Mathieson’s actions had a significant impact on the local community and I’d like to thank the public for their patience and support while officers carried out the necessary investigations to bring this man to justice.’
‘I killed that girl... to show my wife something’