Body parts murderer denied appeal hearing

MURDERER Stephen Marshall who stabbed to death his flatmate and dismembered his body has been denied a hearing to appeal against his sentence.

The 39-year-old, who formerly lived in Park Street, killed Jeffrey Howe and with his then girlfriend scattered his body parts in various locations including Wheathampstead, where a forearm was found in March last year.

Marshall pleaded guilty to murder midway through a trial held at St Albans Crown Court in January and was sentenced to 36 years behind bars.

He was refused leave to appeal against his sentence at a hearing at the Court of Appeal late last month.

A witness told the court during the trial which preceded Marshall’s guilty plea that he learned skills in dismembering bodies when he started work as a bouncer in London nightclubs controlled by gangsters and was asked to dispose of bodies.

She said he had described cutting up bodies, decapitating them and severing their limbs before burying them.

The court heard that Marshall, of Ayot Path, Borehamwood, and his girlfriend Sarah Bush, of Pickard Close, London, had been living with Mr Howe in his Southgate home despite him asking them to leave on numerous occasions. Marshall is said to have hatched a plot to kill him and take over his life and property.

Bush was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for helping him cover up his crimes but was only likely to serve 18 months behind bars.