Builder Mark Brown has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 49 years after he was found guilty of murdering two women six months apart.
Brown killed Leah Ware, 33, and Alexandra Morgan, 34, at a remote farm near St Leonards in East Sussex in May and November last year after meeting them through a sex work website, Hove Crown Court heard last month.
Brown, 41, was sentenced by judge Justice Nicholas Hilliard on Friday in his absence, after he refused to attend Hove Crown Court.
Mr Justice Hilliard gave him two life sentences with a minimum term of 49 years, less 380 days already spent on remand, to be served concurrently.
In the six months between killing Ware and Morgan, Brown messaged a friend calling himself a “psychopath with a conscience.”
Jurors were told that Brown put Morgan’s body into a home-made incinerator before dumping her remains.
Ware’s body has never been found, but the prosecution believe he used a similar method – as well as also killing her Pomeranian dog, Lady.
The jury of 10 men and two women took 10 and a half hours to convict Brown of both murder charges on December 1.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Wolstenholme, of Sussex Police, said the force would speak to Brown as soon as possible after the verdict to try to persuade him to say what happened to Ms Ware’s remains.
Brown met Ware in 2018 when he hired her as an escort and they developed an “on again, off again” relationship.
He killed her on or around May 7 last year after tensions grew when she pressed him to leave his partner of 14 years, the court was told.
In the six months between killing Ware and Morgan, Brown messaged a friend, calling himself a “psychopath with a conscience” and saying:
“I’m going to be very careful how I word this – it happened again, not very long ago when disposing of something.
“It’s a very unpleasant thing to do – an old oil drum, five litres of diesel, and hey presto, there’s not very much left.
“It gets hot, very hot, it glows almost white.
“The things I have done weigh heavily on my heart, on my head and my soul. A psychopath with a conscience – it’s a joke really.”
The jury decided the message referred to Brown disposing of Ms Ware’s remains.
Brown hired Morgan for sex about a dozen times before offering her an escorting job worth £100,000 in October 2021.
But when she visited Little Bridge Farm, the site he rented, the next month, he killed her and burned her body in an incinerator.
He then dumped her remains in a skip at the building site where he worked in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Brown, of Squirrel Close in St Leonards-on-Sea, claimed Morgan died in an accident at the farm after hitting her head when she slipped in his workshop.
He said he burned her body “in a panic”.
He told the jury he and Ware broke up in early 2021 and, as far as he knows, she is still alive.
Last December he was convicted of both murders at Hove Crown Court after a seven-week trial. He refused to attend court for his sentencing today and remained in his prison cell.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard said he had considered a full life tariff but felt it did not meet the necessary standard.
But he sentenced him to 49 years for each murder count minus the 380 days he has served on remand. The two sentences will be served concurrently.
The families of the two victims gasped and shouted ‘Yes’ before breaking out in spontaneous applause.
Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kimber, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: ‘Brown is a dangerous individual who poses a significant threat to women. He preyed on the vulnerabilities of Leah and Alex and worked to build their trust, only to then exploit it for his own personal gain.
‘It was important for his sentence to truly reflect the abhorrent nature of his crimes and ensure he’s not in a position to harm any other women for the rest of his life.’
