A convicted murderer known for dismembering a woman and leaving her remains in a park, is alleged to have attacked the dad of murdered 10-year-old Sara Sharif, inside HMP Belmarsh on New Year’s Day, according to insiders.
Steven Sansom, 46, was convicted last year of murdering Sarah Mayhew, 38. During his trial, it was revealed that he had used power tools to dismember her body, leaving her legs, arms, and head in a field in Croydon.
Sansom, who also murdered a taxi driver at the age of 19, reportedly attacked Urfan Sharif with the jagged lid of a tuna can, cornering him in his cell with the assistance of another inmate.
A source told The Sun: “Everyone is talking about how it was Sansom who got to Sharif. He and another inmate apparently pounced on him as he walked back to the wing after a shower, forced him into a cell, and slashed him. The other bloke, who is also a murderer, held the door shut.”
Sharif was jailed last month for a minimum of 40 years alongside his stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, and his brother, Faisal Malik, 29, for the murder of Sara Sharif. The child had endured two years of abuse before she was found dead at the family home on August 8, 2023. Sara’s body showed signs of prolonged torture, with 25 fractures, 71 external injuries—including bite marks and iron burns—and evidence of multiple assaults.
Following Sara’s death, Sharif, Batool, and Malik fled to Pakistan, where Sharif made a 999 call confessing to the killing. After Pakistani authorities began investigating, the trio voluntarily returned to the UK and were arrested upon arrival at Gatwick Airport.
In the New Year’s Day attack, Sharif sustained a throat injury from the makeshift weapon but is understood to have survived with non-life-threatening wounds, reports the Mirror.
Sansom had only recently been released from a two-decade sentence for murdering a taxi driver on Christmas Eve 1998 when he killed Sarah Mayhew on March 8, 2022. He and his partner, Gemma Watts, 49, admitted to the murder at the Old Bailey in September. Watts was found to have aided Sansom in the crime.
Mayhew’s dismembered remains were discovered in April after a dog walker found a bone in a field in New Addington, Croydon. Further remains were located in May in the River Wandle, south-west London. An examination of her body revealed broken vertebrae in her voice box, skull bruising, and a shaved head. Police confirmed that Sansom and Watts were known to Mayhew before her death.
Don’t miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond – Sign up to our daily newsletter here.