A man has been jailed for the murder of Sabrina Cooper, the daughter of comedian Tommy Cooper. Tony King, 60, of Cornfield Terrace, Eastbourne, will serve a minimum of 22 years and 182 days in prison for the murder.
Ms Cooper ran a magic shop until 2017 and was in the process of selling her shop when her daughter found her dead at her home in Eastbourne, in Sussex, in December 2022. Her family initially believed she had fallen down the stairs and reopened wounds from a recent cancer operation.
But a police investigation found she had been stabbed five times in the abdomen and chest. King was arrested after text messages revealed he had organised to help Ms Cooper move boxes for her impending move.
The pair were friends and had met through a mutual friend at a coffee shop. They would chat while she would walk her two dogs.
CCTV showed King going to Ms Cooper's flat on December 18 and leaving around an hour later at 9.14. He was carrying an orange plastic bag.
Hove Crown Court was shown footage of King, filmed the day before the murder and which was posted to his 11,000 TikTok followers. In it, he said: “Watch out for my next magic trick, it’s going to be amazing.
An unpublished TikTok video made the following day, after the murder took place, was discovered by police. In the video, he said: “I have just taken a life today.”
While being interviewed by Sussex and Surrey Police officers, King admitted the murder and said he was carrying the knife to protect himself from a neighbour. He went on to say that he then “took it out, didn’t say anything and just stabbed her”, prosecutor Amy Packham said.
King then told officers: “I just took her life and to this day I don’t know why. She hadn’t done anything wrong.”
But despite admitting the murder during the police interviews, King then pleaded not guilty in two preliminary hearings. He changed his plea to guilty in May 2023.
Daughter Natasha Cooper said that since her mother's death, she has “good and bad days, most bad”. The mother-of-two said: “Mum had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone, she didn’t deserve this.”
Defending, Lewis Power KC said King felt “ashamed” for what he’d done and had “constant guilt”. Doctors carrying out a mental health assessment of King found he had a personality disorder with narcissistic features. Alcohol and drug misuse exacerbated these conditions. They said he was an "angry" man who felt cheated in life.
He had no previous record for violence but had been previously convicted of importing Class A drugs into the country in 2008. He served a 10-year prison sentence.
King was handed sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 23 years, with 183 days already served.
Speaking after the hearing, Natasha Cooper welcomed the sentence, hoping that her mother will be able to “rest in peace with the knowledge that justice has, at last, been served.” She said: “We do not believe for a second that this man has shown any remorse…this cowardly act will be his legacy.”
On her mother, she said: “This is just the beginning of life…without Sabrina. The laughs we shared and the memory of this fantastic woman will remain with us forever.”
