Mark Brown: ‘psychopath’ builder jailed for life for murders of escorts Leah Ware and Alexandra Morgan

A builder who murdered two escorts and described himself as a “psychopath with a conscience” has been sentenced to two life terms in prison.

Mark Brown was found guilty last year of murdering Leah Ware and Alexandra Morgan in 2021. The 41-year-old was sentenced by judge Justice Nicholas Hilliard on Friday (13 January) in his absence, after he refused to attend Hove Crown Court.

Justice Hilliard gave him two life sentences with a minimum term of 49 years, less 380 days already spent on remand, to be served concurrently. Brown killed Ms Ware and Ms Morgan at a remote farm near St Leonards in East Sussex in May and November 2021, after meeting them through a sex work website.

Brown put Ms Morgan, 34, head first into a homemade incinerator before dumping her remains. The body of Ms Ware, 33, has never been found, but the prosecution believe Brown used a similar method, and also killed her Pomeranian dog, Lady.

The jury of 10 men and two women took 10 and a half hours to convict Brown of both murder charges on 1 December.

‘Pyschopath with a conscience’

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Wolstenholme, of Sussex Police, said the force would speak to Brown as soon as possible after the verdict to try to persuade him to say what happened to Ms Ware’s remains. Brown met her in 2018 when he hired her as an escort and they developed an “on again, off again” relationship.

He killed her on or around 7 May last year after tensions grew when she pressed him to leave his partner of 14 years, the court was told. In the six months between killing Ms Ware and Ms Morgan, Brown messaged a friend, calling himself a “psychopath with a conscience” and saying: “I’m going to be very careful how I word this – it happened again, not very long ago when disposing of something.

“It’s a very unpleasant thing to do – an old oil drum, five litres of diesel, and hey presto, there’s not very much left. It gets hot, very hot, it glows almost white. The things I have done weigh heavily on my heart, on my head and my soul. A psychopath with a conscience – it’s a joke really.” The jury decided the message referred to Brown disposing of Ms Ware’s remains.

Brown burned body ‘in a panic’

Brown hired Ms Morgan for sex about a dozen times before offering her an escorting job worth £100,000 in October 2021. But when she visited Little Bridge Farm, the site he rented, the next month, he killed her and burned her body in an incinerator.

He then dumped her remains in a skip at the building site where he worked in Sevenoaks, Kent. Brown, of Squirrel Close in St Leonards-on-Sea, claimed Ms Morgan died in an accident at the farm after hitting her head when she slipped in his workshop.

He said he burned her body “in a panic”. He told the jury he and Ms Ware broke up in early 2021 and, as far as he knows, she is still alive.

Timeline of the killings

2021

• 6 May: Leah Ware spends the evening of 5 May and into the early hours of 6 May with friend and convicted drug dealer Jack Tyler. They take drugs and have sex. This is the last confirmed sighting of Ms Ware.
• 7 May: The last outgoing contact from Ms Ware’s phone is at 8.55am. The phone leaves the network in a “disorderly shutdown” that evening. Police believe she died that day.
• 20 May: Brown rejoins the AdultWork website, which he used to meet Ms Ware in 2018.
• 8 June: Brown meets Ms Morgan for sex at her home in Sissinghurst, near Cranbrook, Kent, for the first time, after booking an appointment through AdultWork.
• 13 June: Brown messages old school friend Elizabeth Howard: “I’m going to be very careful how I word this – it happened again, not very long ago when disposing of something. It’s a very unpleasant thing to do – an old oil drum, five litres of diesel, and hey presto, there’s not very much left. It gets hot, very hot, it glows almost white. The things I have done weigh heavily on my heart, on my head and my soul. A psychopath with a conscience – it’s a joke really.”
• 21 June: Brown meets Ms Morgan at Little Bridge Farm, near Hastings, Kent, for sex – and again on seven more occasions during August and September.
• 23 October: On WhatsApp, Brown offers Ms Morgan an escorting job paying up to £100,000.
• 13 November: Ms Morgan’s parents collect her son and dog to allow her to go on a trip for four days. She tells family members she is going on a spa weekend with a friend but is in fact meeting Brown for sex at Little Bridge Farm.
• 14 November: Ms Morgan leaves home and is seen on CCTV buying fuel at Ashwal Garage in Cranbrook at 7.20am. She arrives at Little Bridge Farm at about 8am. Ms Morgan is killed by Brown and he destroys her remains by burning her body in a home-made incinerator.
• 17 November: Brown and an associate move Ms Morgan’s car to Holmhurst Lane, St Leonards, where it is left with false number plates. Brown dumps the oil barrel containing Ms Morgan’s remains into a skip at a building site where he worked in Sevenoaks. Ms Morgan fails to return to her parents to pick up her son and dog as planned.
• 18 November: Ms Morgan is reported missing by her mother.
• 20 November: Kent Police’s Major Crime Unit begins an investigation.
• 23 November 23: CCTV footage is found showing Ms Morgan’s car following Brown’s Jaguar up the track to Little Bridge Farm. Kent Police cordon off access to the farm. Brown arrives and gives a non-custodial interview, offering DNA and fingerprints. He admits meeting Ms Morgan for sex but said she left after 45 minutes.
• 24 November: Brown tells his colleague Alan Downs he is about to be arrested for a “double murder”.
• 25 November: Brown is arrested on suspicion of Ms Morgan’s murder.
• 26 November: Kent Police contact Sussex Police in a bid to locate Ms Ware. During a search of Brown’s work van, Ms Ware’s prescription medication is found and she is identified as a potential witness. A missing person inquiry is opened.
• 28 November: Brown is charged with Ms Morgan’s murder.
• 1 December: Bone and tooth fragments are found in the oil barrel Brown dumped in a skip at the Sevenoaks building site. Forensic odontologists say the teeth were Ms Morgan’s.
• 8 December: Believing Ms Ware has been killed, Sussex Police change their missing person case to a murder probe.

2022

• 7 January: The search at Little Bridge Farm ends. Bones belonging to a Pomeranian dog are found. Police believe they are the bones of Ms Ware’s pet, Lady.
• 1 February: Brown is charged with Ms Ware’s murder.
• 4 February: Brown appears at Lewes Crown Court charged with both murders. He pleads not guilty to the murder of Ms Morgan but, after the discovery of her remains, he admits destroying her body with fire – claiming she fell and died on the farm in an accident.
• 25 March: Brown denies Ms Ware’s murder.
• 17 October: Brown’s trial begins at Hove Crown Court.
• 29 November: The jury retires to consider its verdict.
• 1 December: The jury of 10 men and two women find Brown guilty of murder