A builder who murdered two escorts and described himself as a "psychopath with a conscience" has received two life terms.
Mark Brown was found guilty last year for the murder of Leah Ware and Alexandra Morgan in 2021. The 41-year-old was sentenced by judge Justice Nicholas Hilliard on Friday in his absence as he refused to attend Hove Crown Court.
He was handed two life sentences with a minimum term of 49 years to be served concurrently. Brown committed the horrific killings at a remote farm near St Leonards, East Sussex in May and November 2021 after meeting them through a sex work website.
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Brown threw Ms Morgan, 34, head-first into a homemade incinerator before getting rid of her remains. Ms Ware's body was never found, however prosecutors believe Brown used a similar method.
He also killed Ms Ware's Pomeranian dog, Lady. A 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 to try and find out what happened to Ms Ware's remains. In 2018, Brown met Ms Ware when he hired her as an escort, leading to the development of an "on again, off again" relationship.
He killed her on or around May 7 last year when she tried to press him to leave his partner of 14 years, the court head. In the six months between killing Ms Ware and Ms Morgan, Brown told a friend via messaging that he was a "psycopath with a conscience".
He also said: "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 concluded that the message referred to the disposal of Ms Ware's remains. Brown hired Ms Morgan for sex around a dozen times before offering her an escorting job worth £100,000 in October 2021.
However, when she visited Little Bridge Farms - the site he rented - the next month, he killed her and incinerated her body. He then proceeded to dump her remains in a skip at the building site where he worked in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Brown, of Squirrel Close, St Leonards-on-Sea, claimed Ms Morgan died in an accident at the farm after hitting her head when she slipped in his workshop. He added that he burned her body "in a panic".
He told the jury he and Ms Ware broke up in early 2021 and, as far as he knows, she is still alive.
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