Lorry driver ‘murdered and mutilated two call girls’

A lorry driver obsessed with call girls mutilated and murdered two women and carried out rape attacks on two others, a court heard.

David Smith, now 66, was convicted of killing Amanda Walker and defiling her body in 1999.

Prosecutors claim in 1991 he also murdered Sarah Crump, 33, a chiropodist’s secretary who made extra money working as an escort.

Smith, then aged 34, lived with his parents in Hampton, Middlesex and had the week off work when he arranged to meet Ms Crump on 29 August 1991 in her flat in Southall, west London.

Prosecutor William Boyce, KC, told Inner London Crown Court Ms Crump had previously been a psychiatric nurse at St Bernard’s Hospital in Ealing.

‘She lived in a one-bedroom flat at four Joyner Court, Lady Margaret Road, Southall,’ he said.

‘It was in that flat that she was murdered, almost certainly in the early hours of 29 August 1991.

‘Ms Crump was employed at Wembley Hospital as a personal secretary in the chiropody department. She left work at about 1400 hours on 28 August 1991.

‘She was at her home address that evening when she was called between 1900 and 2000 hours by her boyfriend, Mohammed Younis.’

The escort agency boss Lisa Pegg spoke with her at 2am but the victim did not attend work at the Wembley Hospital the next day.

Her boyfriend reported her missing on September 1 and police found her
‘brutally mutilated’ body in the bedroom.

‘There were, in effect, two parts to Sarah Crump’s life,’ Mr Boyce said.

‘During the day she worked as a secretary in the chiropody department of the hospital, but in the evenings, she worked from time to time as an escort, which involved her engaging in sexual encounters for money.

‘She would receive male clients to her flat for that reason.

The defendant was someone who used escorts frequently, particularly in the days and weeks leading up to 28 August 1991.

‘He developed fascinations and obsessions with some of the women he met in this way.

‘After a series of telephone calls on 28 August 1991, the defendant went to the deceased’s home.

‘It is, now, undisputed that at one stage he left the premises to withdraw some cash.

‘At approximately 2am on 29 August 1991, the deceased made a final call to Lisa Pegg to say that the defendant had left.

‘The conversation was unusual in that it was short and abrupt, and Ms Crump failed to follow the usual procedure for a call of that sort.

‘The call was part of the safety procedures devised by the agency to ensure that nothing untoward had happened.

‘It may be in this case that Sarah Crump was being forced to make that call when Mr Smith was still there. I was unusual in format, but it wasn’t picked up – tragically.

‘The defendant’s significant experience of escort agencies, of course, had made him aware that of procedures of this kind were frequently adopted in these circumstances.

‘This was the last occasion anyone is known to have spoken with Sarah Crump, save for the defendant.

‘Smith, using the false name ‘Duncan’, was the last person known to be inside Ms Crump’s flat.

‘He went there as a paying visitor, and it would follow that for such a visitor, she would have taken off her clothes and laid on the bed where she was found, naked.’

Mr Boyce added: ‘The murder was one part in a timeline of escalating violent and sexual offending against women by the defendant, which stretched from his teenage years in the mid-1970s, until his commission of the murder of another sex worker in 1999.

‘That other murder of a woman called Amanda Walker, bore a number of similarities with the murder of Sarah Crump, not least the substantial mutilation to which the victim’s body had been subjected after death.

‘The circumstances of that timeline are such to lead you inevitably to the conclusion that he is guilty of the murder and mutilation of Ms Crump, not only because of his whereabouts that day, but because of the timeline in his life.

‘The motivation was clearly sexual and violent. It wasn’t acquisitive, it wasn’t robbery because both young women had jewellery on them that wasn’t taken after their death.’

Mr Boyce said the jury would be told of two murders, a rape and attempted rape all carried out by Smith.

‘There is a possibility that this would engage the emotions,’ he said.

‘Mr Smith is on trial for the most serious offences there is really, you have to detach yourself in an emotional way.

‘You will be exploring and investigating the deaths of two women, one for which you will decide if he is guilty of.

‘Mr Smith has been convicted of killing that other woman in 1999.’

In a blue jumper and walking with the aid of a crutch, Smith appeared in the dock wearing tinted sunglasses and a tattooed arm.

Smith, of no fixed address, denies murder.

Smith may have cut Ms Crump to match the surgery scars on a woman he had become obsessed with, the court heard.

Ms Crump worked under the name of ‘Angie’ for Elite Private Escorts and charged £85 to £100 for half-an-hour.

In their agency books, Ms Crump was described as ‘dark blonde hair, hazel eyes, 5 ft 6, 25 years old, English’.

On the night of her murder Ms Crump made a call to her agency to confirm her client had left.

Mr Boyce said: ‘The prosecution contends that the highly irregular nature of this call– short, abrupt, and not using any name – indicates that Sarah Crump knew she was in danger at the time she made it.

‘Smith had compelled her to make the call to provide some evidence that he had left, knowing full well that no final call would provide compelling evidence that he was responsible for her death.’

Ms Crump’s boyfriend initially did not find her body in the flat.

‘Mr Younis let himself into the flat and immediately noticed a strange smell,’ Mr Boyce said.

‘He looked in the bathroom first of all and noticed a few spots of blood on the toilet seat.

‘Mr Younis assumed that the blood spots and the mess of clothes which he could see in the bedroom were related to another miscarriage. He left the flat without further examination.

‘He made calls to local hospitals to see whether she had been admitted. Having failed to locate her, he finally went to the police for assistance.’

On 1 September 1991 police found Ms Crump’s dead body in her bedroom.

Ms Crump was found with six knife wounds to her neck some of which were 5 inches deep. She also suffered a stab wound to her left shoulder, abdomen and back.

Mr Boyce said:‘The defendant was someone who developed unhealthy, and inappropriate, fascinations with women he met.’

Smith became infatuated with a woman he met at a club in 1990.

‘Smith developed an untoward attraction,’ Mr Boyce said.

‘He visited her home address on approximately eight occasions.

‘He called her most days at her place of work and repeatedly asked her to leave her husband for him.’

The woman had undergone several surgeries including breast augmentation and the removal of her gallbladder.

Mr Boyce said: ‘The surgical procedures undergone by [the woman] may be significant.

‘The incision wounds suffered by Ms Crump following her death were similar to the surgical scars borne by this woman with whom Smith had become obsessed in the months before Ms Crump’s murder.’

Outlining Smith’s previous offending, Mr Boyce said: ‘The killing of Sarah Crump was one element of a wider spectrum of evidence that reveals an escalating pattern of violent and sexual offending.

‘That pattern includes the defendant’s conviction in 1976 for the knife-point rape of a young mother in her own home.

‘The attempted rape of an escort on 18 August 1991, 10 days prior to the murder of Sarah Crump, and the murder and mutilation of a sex worker in 1999.

‘The prosecution say that the evidence of that offending is highly probative of the prosecution’s case that it was this defendant, and no one else, who was responsible for the murder of Sarah Crump.’

In March 1976 Smith raped a mother in her home in from of her two young children. He spotted his victim fixing curtains in her living room and knocked on her door brandishing a 7-inch knife.

In August 1991, Smith was charged with the attempted rape of a sex worker after allegedly putting a Stanley knife to a woman’s throat in a hotel room after arranging to meet her.

The report of the offence came just ten days after the murder of Ms Crump, and Smith was acquitted following trial on 29 November 1991.

Mr Boyce said: ‘It is evidence which, if you accept it, tends to show that this defendant has a propensity to confine and detain young females in a room at knifepoint, with the intention of inflicting at least serious sexual violence upon them.’

Amanda Walker, 21, a sex worker in Paddington was murdered by Smith in April 1999.

‘During the evening of 24 April 1999, Mr Smith had attended a “party for broad-minded adults” held at a brothel in Ilford, Essex.

Smith was later to tell police that he “felt randy” when he left the venue and went to the Paddington area to look for a prostitute.’

On 25 April 1999, two women were out riding horses when they found discarded bloodstained clothing in an alleyway.

It was identified as Ms Walker’s and found less than a mile from Smith’s home address.

‘At the time of the incident, Ms Walker had fought back,’ Mr Boyce said.

‘Smith told one of his fellow employees that he had spent the previous night in a lay-by in Wisley watching people having sex in the back of a car.

‘Members of staff noticed that he had a fresh injury to his lip, and some bruising around his eye. When he was asked what had caused the injuries, he told his colleagues that he had fallen over.’

On 27 May 1999, Smith was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ms Walker.

On 1 June 1999 a Royal Horticultural Society employee at Wisley in Surrey found Ms Walker’s decomposing body partially covered in leaves and dead branches.

Smith was found guilty of Ms Walker’s murder on 8 December 1999
by a unanimous verdict.

Whilst serving time at HMP Highdown, Smith admitted to inmate Steven Williams that he murdered Ms Walker.

In a witness statement, Williams wrote: ‘I would probably see Smith twice a day during association or meal times. He would 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 [other than the murder of Amanda Walker].’

The trial continues.