Homeless woman 'danced naked in street' after murder of ex-soldier pensioner

04 December 2023 , 22:53

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Barry Spooner was stabbed 36 times in the brutal attack (Image: Nottinghamshire Police)

A "vile" woman danced naked in the street after savagely murdering a former soldier she had drained of his life savings, a court heart.

Sarah Hansford, 44, stabbed 73-year-old Barry Spooner 36 times before shaving her head and dressing as a man to disguise herself and posed as the victim in a bid to get what little remained in his bank accounts. Afterwards, she lived in the home for two weeks as the victim’s body remained undiscovered in the cellar. Mary Prior KC , prosecuting, told Nottingham Crown Court Mr Spooner, who served in the Royal Signals Regiment for 12 years, befriended Hansford in 2020 as she was homeless and he “took pity” on her.

She said over the next three years the victim lost “four to five stones” in weight as “using a combination of persuasion, threats, aggression and violence”, she caused him to give her an estimated £24,000 of life savings to fund her drug habit, NottinghamshireLive reported. The prosecutor said in the lead up to his death, Mr Spooner, who worked for British Telecom after leaving the army told a neighbour he was “scared and nervous of the defendant to the point he would twitch when she moved in his presence”. Mrs Prior said Hansford effectively moved in with him in his flat in Gladstone Street, Forest Fields.

Hansford pleaded guilty to murder, attempted robbery, possession of a bladed article and two counts of fraud. She has now been jailed for life and told it will be a minimum of 22-and-a-half years until she is eligible to apply for parole.

Judge Nirmal Shant KC said: “Over a period of more than two years, after he was kind enough to give you a home, the relationship reached a stage where you took his life savings and you did that through violence, menace and whatever it took. He was 73 years old and he told people he could not protect himself against you because you were quite strong. He changed, he was scared of you.

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“No-one else knows how he really met his death and your accounts have been inconsistent. You later said you could not remember how many times you stabbed him, you said you tried to drown him and strangle him and what did you do afterwards? You unceremoniously dumped his body in the cellar and the day after you did that, you danced naked in the street.

“In his victim impact statement, his nephew said ‘he spent those last minutes on this earth with a vile person, the very worst of humanity’, that’s the impact you’ve had on the family of Mr Spooner. You told lie after lie to get your hands on that money.”

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Spooner’s nephew, Darren McMahon, said: “We, as a family, are heartbroken. Barry would go out of his way to help anyone and I will forever be haunted at the thought of his last moments and tortured knowing he would have been unable to defend himself. I will never forgive his killer in the way she has dehumanised him in the most vile way."

And in her statement, Valerie McMahon, Mr Spooner’s sister, said: “He was a wonderful human being who was well-loved by me and the rest of the family. I cannot find the words, I don't think there are words, to express the devastation and mixture of emotions knowing I will never see Barry again."

Vanessa Marshall KC, mitigating, said her client had, albeit at a late stage, pleaded guilty to murdering the victim. She said: “There was no real significant degree of planning, there was little sophistication here. It was not all bad but it has ended appallingly. Whatever the reason on that day she lost control and she accepts her guilt but there’s a background to why she is who she is dating back to when she was a child and now she’s facing a life sentence.”

Antony Clements-Thrower