The police officer who finally caught Britain’s once most-wanted man Michael Sams after he murdered one woman and held another hostage in 1991 and 1992 has revealed chilling details about his arrest.
Detective Sergeant Tim Grogan has recalled how Sams was calm and cheerful as police walked into his workshop in Newark, Notts, to arrest him for the kidnap and murder of Julie Dart, 18, and the kidnap of Stephanie Slater, then 25, after he held each woman hostage locked up in a box for several days.
DS Grogan recalled how ‘calm and cool’ Sams had greeted the officers and accepted his arrest without complaining or fighting it. He even directed the driver to the nearest police station
Speaking to The Mirror ahead of a Channel 5 documentary about Sams’s gruesome crimes, he said: ‘All this time we’ve been searching for this chap who’s outwitted West Midlands Police. He’s killed and he was prepared to kill again.’
He added he was shocked to discover the culprit was a ‘shambling’ one-legged man with a limp he believes was ‘accentuated’ as the person who had been committing horrific crimes under the radar for several months.
Estate agent Stephanie Slater (right, at the trial) was kidnapped and held hostage by Michael Sams in 1992 after he abducted her at knifepoint while posing as a prospective house buyer in Birmingham. He raped her and held her hostage at his workshop in Newark, Nottinghamshire and kept her in a locked wheelie bin. A new Channel 5 documentary follows how West Midlands Police, who Sams had evaded for months, finally caught the killer
Recalling Sams’s arrest ahead of The Girl in the Box: The Kidnapping of Stephanie Slater which airs on Channel 5 at 9pm tonight and tomorrow, DS Grogan revealed the moment the killer realised he was being charged with serious crimes – at which point, his chipper demeanour faded fast.
‘The blood drained through his face,’ the cop recalled, adding that his apparent vulnerability meant it was the best time to interview him in the hope he would reveal as much information as possible.
West Midlands Police were left stumped after the body of 18-year-old Julie Dart was discovered in July 1991 and began their hunt for her killer.
DS Tim Grogan (pictured) has revealed Michael Sams was ‘cool and calm’ when police arrived at his workshop to arrest him
Michael Sams (pictured) was sentenced to life in prison in July 1993 after being convicted of the kidnap and murder of 18-year-old Julie Dart, and the kidnap of Stephanie Slater. He is now 80 years old, one of the UK’s oldest prisoners, and is said to be applying for parole next month
Sams’s first victim was Julie Dart (pictured) an 18-year-old woman with dreams of joining the army. She was working as a prostitute to clear her debts when Sams picked her up in the red-light district in Leeds
Days earlier, the sadistic murderer had picked up Ms Dart in the Chapeltown area of Leeds while cruising through the red-light district searching for a victim.
Ms Dart had turned to prostitution to clear her debts so she could pursue her dream of an Army career, having passed the medical and other assessment tests. After she got into his car, Sams drove the terrified teenager 70 miles to his workshop in Nottinghamshire.
After leaving Julie locked up overnight, Sams returned to his workshop and ordered her to write letters to her boyfriend and mother Lynn, telling them that she was being held and urging them to contact police. Sams himself also wrote a threatening letter to West Midlands Police demanding £140,000 for the safe return of the teenager.
Officers attempted to comply, and a policewoman with a holdall containing the cash was sent on Sams’s instructions to various locations, but all attempts at the handover failed. Shortly afterwards, he killed Julie.
A post-mortem examination of Julie’s body, which was found trussed up in a sheet and ropes under an oak tree in Easton, Lincolnshire, ten days after her disappearance, revealed that Sams had strangled the life out of her by crushing her windpipe with his bare hands.
He kept her body for a week in a green wheelie bin before transporting her decomposing remains to his chosen dumping ground.
‘When I read that letter Julie had written when she was in desperate need, knowing she was going to die… It’s a heart-rending letter,’ he said.
DS Grogan revealed his regrets after reading Julie’s letter that police were unable to save her.
Six months later, Sams would adapt his methods for his next crime, abducting Stephanie Slater at knifepoint while posing as a house buyer in Birmingham and imprisoning her in a wheelie bin in the same workshop.
Although her disappearance prompted a huge manhunt, Sams evaded police and escaped with a £175,000 ransom – although incredibly, he kept his promise and returned Stephanie to her loved ones after receiving the money.
Stephanie later revealed in a memoir that she had been raped during her ordeal, in which Sams had held her hostage in a locked wheelie bin for several days.
However, DS Grogan and his team were left frustrated that they had not managed to catch Sams, despite a carefully orchestrated operation in which they had arranged for the ransom to be paid by Stephanie’s boss. The plan was to intercept the handover and arrest Sams, but poor weather conditions meant they lost him.
He was later caught following a BBC Crimewatch appeal, when Sams’s ex-wife Susan Oake recognised the clues provided and linked Stephanie’s case to her former husband.
Sams was convicted in July 1993 and sentenced to life in prison. He is now 80 years old, making him one of the UK’s oldest prisoners, and is said to be applying for parole next month.
In 2005 he was given an extra eight years for attacking a female probation officer with a metal spike. Two years ago, the Parole Board ruled that he was still too dangerous to be released.
Stephanie subsequently worked with police to help improve the treatment of kidnap victims, but died of cancer in 2017, aged just 50.
DailyMail
