Ripper-style double murderer David Smith tried to blame the sadistic killing of a young woman on anger from the failure of his marriage, it can be revealed.
The 66-year-old former lorry driver killed and mutilated Sarah Crump in 1991, and after getting away with her murder he went on to kill a second woman, Amanda Walker, in 1999.
Smith was on an escalating spiral of violence and depravity, having also raped a woman at knifepoint in front of her children and attempted to rape another woman in 1991, three weeks before he murdered Ms Crump.
In evidence that can be reported for the first time today, it is revealed that Smith gave an explanation for his crimes to a prison psychologist in 2006, while confessing to Ms Walker’s murder.
Smith had gone to an orgy on the night of Ms Walker’s murder, and met her in Paddington where she was working as a prostitute. He drove them to a wooded area near to the Royal Horticultural Society’s estate in Wisley, Surrey, and he said “something snapped” inside of him.
“He grabbed hold of her and wouldn’t let go”, the psychologist recorded.
“She started screaming and a struggle ensued during which the victim bit his finger really hard.
“He then made the victim undress and strangled her and buried her underneath some leaves.”
Smith, who claims to be impotent, told the psychologist he “thinks that his very negative experiences with previous relationships may have been linked to the build-up to this offence.
“He described his very short marriage in 1982 where his wife had an affair with their lodger within months of marriage and then proceeded to get him in trouble - stealing money, destroying the relationship he had with his father.
“He states that he felt as if she was controlling him in this relationship and his lack of assertiveness allowed her to do this. He thinks that he may be treated (Ms Walker) like he did because of his feelings towards his previous wife.”
Smith was convicted of Ms Walker’s murder at a trial in 1999 and is now serving a life sentence.
He was acquitted of the murder of Ms Crump at a 1993 Old Bailey trial, to the horror of her mother who warned at the time that Smith was likely to kill again.
Metropolitan Police officers kept the case under review, and an application to the Court of Appeal to put him on trial again was approved in 2021, thanks to new evidence.
The Court of Appeal ruling shows judges were persuaded by the striking similarities between the murders of Ms Crump and Ms Walker, including mutilation of the bodies after death, Smith’s pattern of violence towards women, and new fingerprint evidence.
Smith met Ms Crump for sex at her bedsit home in Southall, using the alias ‘Duncan’ to set up the meeting.
Prosecutors also relied on a prison confession by Smith to a fellow inmate, in which he boasted about his acquittal in 1993 for the murder of Ms Crump.
The inmate said he saw Smith daily in prison, and heard him “talk about S&M clubs in London, parties he used to go to and things like that.
“He said he likes to see girls in a lot of pain and tie them up.
“He had told me that he was responsible for another murder.”
The inmate said Smith told him the killing was “sexy” and demonstrated how he had mutilated the body.
“He didn’t tell me much about this incident other than that it was about seven years ago, that he was on remand for 18 months, that he went to the Old Bailey and that he walked. He said that they got no evidence on him and that he got away with it.”
Smith is due to be sentenced for Ms Crump’s murder on Friday at Inner London crown court.
