Mark Brown: Victims’ families share their sadness as double killer is imprisoned

The 41-year-old refused to appear for his sentencing today at Hove Crown Court, where a judge sentenced him to 49 years in prison.

Brown murdered 34-year-old Alex Morgan and 33-year-old Leah Ware, both mothers.

Ms Morgan, a single mother of two from Sissinghurst, was reported missing in November 2021 after failing to return from a weekend getaway.

She was last seen filling up her car at a petrol station near her home in Cranbrook, Kent, on the morning of November 14.

Leah Ware, a mother of three from Hastings, was last seen by a friend in the early hours of May 6, 2021.

She was in a relationship with Brown after meeting him through an escort website.

The packed courtroom heard Leah’s cousin Gabby describe Barnard Brown as “consumed by pure evil.”

Her mother, Rebecca Martin, said in a statement her daughter “has her whole life ahead of her.”

“Who knew she would be taken away under such shocking and disturbing circumstances?” she said.

“I am overwhelmed with grief. I don’t understand how another person can be so cruel.

“I had to endure his fabrications and lies.

“She lost her life because Mark Brown wanted to satisfy his deprived desires.

“He treated her like a prisoner, then threw her away when he’d had enough of her like she was a piece of dirt.”

Brown, of Squirrel Close, St Leonards, will be 90 before he becomes eligible for parole.

His honorary judge, Nicholas Hilliard KC, said there was every chance he would die in prison.

There was cheering and applause from the victims’ families in the visitors’ gallery as he announced his verdict.

Brown, who has claimed he is a “psychopath with a conscience”, has ignored pleas from Ms Ware’s family to tell them what he has done to her body.

“The defendant identified himself as a psychopath who did outrageous things,” the judge said.

Brown, 41, played out sick sex fantasies on Ms Ware before killing her and plotting to murder Ms Morgan.

He was found guilty last year of killing Ms Ware, 32, and Ms Morgan, 34, on a farm he rented at Little Bridge Farm in Westfield, near Hastings.

“Because he thought he got away with the first murder, he was encouraged to plan the second murder,” the judge said.

“He didn’t go to court today. This is consistent with his previous actions. His conscience is untroubled by what he has done.

“He engaged in violent, non-consensual sexual activity, according to his internet research.

“Exactly what happened will never be known, but I am satisfied that he planned for Alex Morgan to never leave Little Bridge Farm alive.”

Ms. Ware was kept as a sex slave by Brown in a shipping container on the farm.

Her mother broke down when she told the court that her daughter was forced to live in the container in a barn that Brown had rented at the remote site.

Mrs Morgan was murdered in the same steel box.

Within days of Ms Ware’s murder, Brown began grooming Ms Morgan as her surrogate.

He targeted her through an escort website before taking to social media.

He lured her to her death with the promise of a new life.

But she wasn’t completely fooled by Brown’s lies, leaving a trail of leads for police should anything happen to her.

Police believe he strangled her before burning her body head first in the metal oil drum.

At least four other women who visited Little Bridge Farm had happy escapes, the court heard.

Brown worked as a laborer, hotel and festival attendant, and car dealer.

He kept stolen cars at Little Bridge Farm, where he worked on them before selling them.

He has one son with his partner Lisa Clarke, who has two other sons from a previous relationship.

Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecutor, described Brown as a selfish man who created a web of confusion, misinformation and lies to cover up his crimes.

He told the jury that the lack of evidence as to how the two women died was no bar to concluding that Brown murdered them both.

“He erected a great edifice of lies, camouflage and distraction to hide when, where and how Leah Ware and Alex Morgan died,” Atkinson said.

His determined concealment of the means of death masked his determined, violent crackdown, Mr Atkinson said.