Drunk mother who killed child abuser to go free in months
A MOTHER of five who stabbed a paedophile to death could be freed from prison within a year after a judge described her case as ‘truly exceptional’ yesterday.
Sarah Sands, 32, stabbed neighbour Michael Pleasted, 77, eight times in his flat within days of learning that he was on bail accused of abusing three young boys.
After hiding the kitchen knife she had used and the blood- spattered clothes she had been wearing, Sands handed herself in to police.
She told them Pleasted had been ‘asking for trouble’. When officers suggested the pensioner was harmless, she replied: ‘He’s harmless now, isn’t he?’
Sands added: ‘Who houses a ****ing paedophile on an estate?’ He touched some kids, so I took care of it – I stabbed him.’ She was cleared of murder by a jury who were ‘troubled by the background’ of the case, but convicted of manslaughter.
Sentencing Sands at the Old Bailey yesterday, Judge Nicholas Cooke QC reduced her jail term from seven years to three and a half – in part because her
‘He knew who I was... he just smirked’
children are living ‘in conditions reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens or Elizabeth Gaskell’ as she was kept in custody while awaiting trial.
The judge said her case was unique because she had lost control rather than engaging in ‘vigilante conduct’.
Sands, who has already spent ten months in custody, could be released on parole in 11 months.
An inquiry has been launched into why Pleasted was granted bail to await trial on two charges of sexually assaulting two children aged under 13.
At the time, police were investigating a further allegation that he had abused a third boy.
The paedophile had been jailed several times between 1970 and 1991 for a total of 24 offences.
During the trial Sands told how she had befriended Pleasted, cooking him meals and helping him around his flat on their estate in Canning Town, East London.
She originally thought he was a ‘positive male role model’ for local children and defended him when he was accused of being a paedophile.
But when she found out that he was awaiting trial, she said she wanted to persuade him to confess to spare the children the ordeal of testifying in court.
Sands drank two bottles of wine and a bottle of brandy before heading to his flat with a kitchen knife, a wrench and a hammer last November. Describing the moment she entered his home, she said: ‘ He knew who I was straight away... He just smirked.’ She followed Pleasted into his living room and, when he turned his back, drew the knife from her handbag.
‘I just had it in my hand and I poked him with it in the front and that’s when we both realised at the same time what had happened and he grabbed me,’ she told the court. ‘ He was frightening me and I pushed him away and I left. That was it.’
After stabbing him eight times, she told a neighbour: ‘Pretend you never saw me’.
Sands took a taxi to the Isle of Dogs and stashed her bloodied clothes and weapons in a plastic carrier bag. After drinking a glass of whisky and another half bottle of wine, she handed herself in.
Judge Cooke said: ‘The defendant promptly gave herself up to the police in a highly stressed state, never disputed responsibility for the killing as a matter of fact, did not take the opportunity to get rid of evidence and demonstrated remorse.’
He said a lesser verdict of manslaughter rather than murder would not have applied to a defendant guilty of ‘ vigilante-type conduct’.
‘Such a defendant must and would face the full force of the law of murder,’ he said. ‘There must never be the slightest encouragement for mob rule.’