'Psychopath' killer Mark Brown collects victim's prescriptions to cover up tracks in CCTV footage
Mark Brown (pictured) has been found guilty of killing two escorts at Little Bridge Farm following a seven-week trial at Hove Crown Court
'Psychopathic' killer Mark Brown was caught on CCTV repeatedly collecting Leah Ware's prescription medication from a pharmacist in an attempt to cover up her murder - as the judge presiding over his trial urges him to reveal what he did with her body to give her family closure.
The perverted double murderer was convicted by a jury of killing two mothers, first Ms Ware and then Alexandra Morgan just six months later.
Brown torched their bodies in an oil drum at a remote farm near St Leonards in East Sussex after meeting them through a sex work website.
Yesterday Judge Nicholas Hilliard, KC, appealed to Brown to reveal where Ms Ware's body was as her distraught family said the killer 'won't allow her the dignity and respect of a proper burial or allow us to have the answers we so desperately need and deserve'.
Footage released throughout the trial shows one occasion where Brown, wearing a black hoodie, signed off on the prescription on Ms Ware's behalf.
Detective Superintendent Andy Wolstenholme said Brown consistently tried to make it appear as though Ms Ware was still alive after the brutal murder.
'He collected her medication regularly and also made financial transactions using her bank accounts,' he said.
Ms Ware had several mental illnesses and was prescribed medication to help her. She lived a transient lifestyle and the last time she contacted her family directly was to wish one of her children a happy birthday in March 2021.
The 33-year-old also had a history of drug problems and was extremely vulnerable when she met Brown on the AdultWork website in March 2018.
After splitting from a long-term boyfriend, she had stumbled into a series of abusive relationships and was using crack cocaine and heroin. With no job she turned to prostitution to fund her habit.
A one-off transaction became a regular agreement between the pair and soon they were meeting socially.
Brown has been convicted of murdering Leah Ware (left) and Alexandra Morgan (right)
Footage also showed Brown using Ms Ware's cards months after her disappearance to give the illusion she was still alive
Footage released throughout the trial shows one occasion where Brown, wearing a black hoodie, signed off on the prescription on her behalf
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ShareMs Ware sought psychiatric help in the summer of 2018 but after being discharged Brown saw an opportunity.
Preying on her vulnerability, he set her up in a flat in St Leonards and would visit regularly for sex.
As the secret relationship developed, Brown became increasingly controlling of Ms Ware, asking who she was seeing and checking up on her.
Later, Ms Ware was moved to a shipping container at the Little Bridge Farm, where she was kept as a modern sex slave. He would even padlock her into the barn while he was at work.
He also used restraints and a gag on her during sex and liked her to be 'subservient' to him.
It was in the shipping container police believe Ms Ware was murdered by Brown on the evening of May 7 last year.
Her body has never been found. His Honour Judge Hilliard urged Brown to tell Ms Ware's family what he did with her ahead of his sentencing next month.
'If he wishes to confirm what he had done with Leah Ware's body, he has that chance,' Judge Hilliard said.
The judge must decide by January whether he will sentence Brown to life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
The 'psychopath' murdered two sex workers after forcing one to live in a padlocked shipping container and then burned her body in a home-made incinerator before killing his second victim who 'left clues behind' for her family. Pictured: Brown arrives at Lewes Court earlier in the trial
DI Andy Wolstenholme read a statement from the family of Leah Ware who were stood behind along with her friends on the steps of Hove Crown Court today
'Our world will be a darker place without Leah': Family of Leah Ware's full statement
The family of Leah Ware, who attended throughout the trial, gave a heartfelt tribute to the victim.
In a statement they said: 'Leah was a kind, loving, generous and beautiful young woman who should have had her whole life ahead of her.
'She loved and cherished her children and always wanted to do her best for them. She adored her animals and was devoted to her two dogs Lady and Duke and her horse Bertie.
'Leah did encounter challenges in her later life, but she always tried to see the good in everything and everyone.
'She was very trusting and cared deeply, and it was those qualities in Leah that Mark Brown exploited for his own gratification.
'He betrayed Leah's love and trust, and even now he won't allow her the dignity and respect of a proper burial or allow us to have the answers we so desperately need and deserve.
'The feeling of loss is so hard for us all to bear, there will forever be a missing piece in our lives.
'We are truly devastated that Leah has been ripped from our lives in such inhumane circumstances. It breaks our hearts to think of what she went through in the time leading up to her murder.
'Leah will live on in the thoughts and memories of her family and friends and will never be forgotten. We will all make sure that Leah's children grow up knowing who their Mummy was.
'For people that didn't know our Leah; she was fun, with a fabulous sense of humour and mischief.
'Our world will be a darker place without Leah who was a loving Mother, Daughter, Granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin, and friend.
'We would like to pay tribute to Alexandra because without her the truth may not have been uncovered as quickly. Our thoughts will always be with Alex's family.
'Thank you to the Investigation team and the Family Liaison Officers who have worked so hard and supported us every step of the way. We please ask that we are all allowed time as a family to grieve and come to terms with our huge loss.'
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Ms Ware was an animal lover and devoted to her pets. At the time of her death she had a horse, Bertie, and two dogs, Duke and Lady.
Brown gave Duke to his sister shortly after the day police suspect he killed Ms Ware.
Lady, a Pomeranian, was said to be completely loyal to Ms Ware, even following her to the bathroom.
Pomeranian bones were found on the farm along with a length of chain and a dumbbell weight, and police say Brown killed Lady either shortly before or after Ms Ware.
Even prior to murdering Ms Ware, Brown was on the lookout for a new victim.
He lured Ms Morgan, a single mother-of-two living in Sissinghust, Kent, to her death with promises of a new life and £100,000 pay check.
Brown hired her for sex on the same adult website where he had met Ms Ware. At least four other women visited Little Bridge Farm during this same period.
Ms Morgan was murdered in the same steel box as Ms Ware six months later in November, but police revealed during the trial she left clues about his identity and her whereabouts in her apartment before their final meeting.
The 34-year-old was put head-first into an incinerator before Brown dumped her remains. Only charred teeth and bone fragments remained.
Judge Hilliard said: 'Alex was more suspicious of him than he knew and it would not have taken much to confirm her suspicions.'
On one occasion, Brown sent a chilling text an old school friend, Elizabeth Howard, with whom he had rekindled a friendship.
In it he said: 'Now I'm going to be very careful how I word this but it happened again, not very long ago, while disposing of something.
'I try to laugh these things off, but it's a very unpleasant thing to do: old oil drum, five litres of diesel, hey presto nothing much left - but it gets hot, very hot; oil drum glows almost white. You go through a lot of stages in a situation like that'.
He then went on to say: 'Things I've done weigh heavily on my heart, in my head and soul, a psychopath with a conscience. It's a joke really'.
Brown worked as a labourer, hotel and festival security guard and car trader. He kept stolen cars at Little Bridge Farm where he worked on them before selling them on.
He has one teenage son with his partner of 17 years - who has another two sons from a previous relationship. Brown was 'persistently' unfaithful to her, the court heard.
Duncan Atkinson, KC, described Brown as a selfish man who created a web of confusion, misinformation and lies to cover his crimes.
He told the jury the lack of evidence of how the two women died was not an obstacle to concluding Brown murdered Leah Ware and Alex Morgan.
Police have issued footage of the moment that they arrested Brown on suspicion of murdering Ms Morgan
Undated handout photo issued by Kent Police of an image of Little Bridge Farm
Undated handout photo issued by Kent Police of an image of an oil drum
'He constructed a great edifice of lies, camouflage and distraction designed to conceal when, where and how Leah Ware and Alex Morgan had died,' Mr Atkinson said.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Wolstenholme of Sussex Police described Brown as a 'predator' who gained the trust of the two women before murdering them.
'Mark Brown is a hugely controlling character. He is really disgraceful. He has taken people into his confidence, he has betrayed trust. He is a predatory man and he has killed two women for his own gratification and there can be no worse crime. He is a disgrace.'
He said he hoped Brown would finally tell the truth about what happened to Leah and what he did with her body.
'We will be going to see Mark Brown at the earliest opportunity to ask him to finally start to tell the truth about what happened with Leah and reveal the location of Leah's body so we can take action and really help the family to get some closure around the murder of Leah.'
Undated handout photo issued by Kent Police of an image of a rollerblades box. The rollerblade box relates to clues Alexandra Morgan left before visiting Brown for sex for the final time. She left a note for her son saying 'let's go rollerblading' and inside his box of rollerblades they found cash, the pin number to her secret phone used for escorting work, and a note giving Brown's name and address
Undated handout photo issued by Kent Police of an image of a Ms Morgan filling up her Mini with petrol before she went missing
Undated handout photo issued by Kent Police of an image of Browns Jaguar
An undated handout photo issued by Kent Police shows the mini belonging to Ms Morgan arriving at Little Bridge Farm
The killing of Leah Ware and Alexandra Morgan by 'psychopath' Mark Brown: Timeline
2021
- May 6: Ms Ware spends the evening of May 5 into the early hours of May 6 with friend and convicted drug dealer Jack Tyler. The pair take drugs and have sex. This is the last confirmed sighting of Ms Ware by anyone other than Brown.
- May 7: The last outgoing contact from Ms Ware's phone is at 8.55am. The phone leaves the network in a 'disorderly shutdown' that evening. The police believe she died that day.
- May 8: Ms Ware's phone returns to the network at 8.57am and comes in and out of the network before being switched off manually for the last time at 2.38pm.
- May 20: Brown rejoins the AdultWork website, which he used to meet Ms Ware in 2018.
- June 8: Brown meets Ms Morgan for sex at her home in Sissinghurst, near Cranbrook, Kent, for the first time after booking an appointment through AdultWork.
- June 13: 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.'
- June 21: Brown meets Ms Morgan at Little Bridge Farm for sex - and again on seven more occasions during August and September.
- October 23: Over WhatsApp, Brown offers Ms Morgan an escorting job paying up to £100,000.
- November 13: 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.
- November 14: Ms Morgan leaves home and is seen buying fuel on CCTV 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 homemade incinerator.
- November 17: Brown and an associate move Ms Morgan's car to Holmhurst Lane, St Leonards, where it is left bearing false number plates. Brown dumps the oil barrel containing Ms Morgan's remains into a skip at a building site he worked at in Sevenoaks. Ms Morgan fails to return to her parents to pick up her son and dog as planned.
- November 18: Ms Morgan is reported missing by her mother.
- November 20: Kent Police's Major Crime Unit commences an investigation.
- 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 to meeting Ms Morgan for sex but said she left after 45 minutes.
- November 24: Brown tells his colleague Alan Downs he is about to be arrested for a 'double murder'.
- November 25: Brown is arrested on suspicion of Ms Morgan's murder.
- November 26: Kent Police contact Sussex Police in a bid to find 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.
- November 28: Brown is charged with Ms Morgan's murder.
- December 1: 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.
- December 8: Believing Ms Ware has been killed, Sussex Police change their missing person case into a murder probe.
2022
- January 7: 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 beloved pet Lady and both Ms Ware and Lady died at the farm on the same day.
- February 1: Brown is charged with Ms Ware's murder.
- February 4: 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 to destroying her body with fire - claiming she fell and died on the farm in an accident.
- March 25: Brown denies Ms Ware's murder.
- October 17: Brown's trial begins at Hove Crown Court.
- November 29: The jury retires to consider its verdict.
- December 1: The jury of 10 men and two women find Brown guilty of murder.
<!- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_2 - ->AdvertisementThe father and mechanic who was secretly obsessed with violent pornography, prostitutes and bondage
By Jaya Narain
To friends and colleagues, Mark Brown appeared to be a dedicated father working hard to provide for his family.
Brown, 41, and his partner had been together for more than 17 years and had one teenage son together and two older boys from her previous relationship.
The family lived in a smart cul-de-sac in St Leonards-on-Sea and though Brown often flitted between jobs he always had money coming in and the couple appeared happy.
They were often seen out walking their dogs, socialising with friends or enjoying life with their three sons and appeared to have no financial worries.
But the affable mechanic also had a very dark side he was desperate to keep hidden from his friends and family.
He had a secret predilection for prostitutes and was obsessed with violent pornography and bondage.
The mechanic spent hours searching the internet for videos of men subjugating and humiliating women and bending them to their will.
Using terms like 'forced' and 'rape' and 'shared wife', he would trawl the web for videos to satisfy his sick lusts.
Mark Brown (pictured) had a very dark side he was desperate to keep hidden from his friends and family. He had a secret predilection for prostitutes and was obsessed with violent pornography and bondage
Using the moniker 'fistymcrapist' - a character he claims hails from BBC comedy series Bottom starring Rik Mayall - he joined a number of online escort sites to organise meeting prostitutes.
Brown had a history of drug dealing and intimidation, it emerged in the murder trial, but had until now successfully avoided being caught by police.
Although he claimed to be devoted to his sons, he spent nearly all of his spare time at a collection of buildings he rented at Little Bridge Farm, five miles from his home in Hastings.
There he would renovate stolen cars to sell on to unsuspecting buyers.
'He's nasty, a really unpleasant piece of work,' said one acquaintance. 'He has a violent temper and was mixed up with all sorts of dodgy stuff. People steered clear of him.
Brown had a history of drug dealing and intimidation, it emerged in the murder trial, but had until now successfully avoided being caught by police
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Share'He fancies himself as a bit of a criminal big shot. He acted like he was a gangster. He moved drugs, stolen cars, the lot really. I knew enough about him to avoid him'.
The farm buildings he rented, located down a long country road out of Hastings, were also a place he could meet prostitutes for sex.
Away from prying eyes, he contacted sex workers online and then directed them to the remote location.
He installed a shipping container in the barn and used it as a makeshift bedroom for his assignations.
Brown had been a habitual user of prostitutes after his first experience with a sex worker at the age of 19.
Despite being with his partner for more than 17 years and having a son together he was 'persistently unfaithful to her' and continued to use prostitutes all his adult life.
One former friend said: 'He didn't give a damn about [his partner]. Treated her like dirt, like scum, using prostitutes all the time. He's sick in the head and has been for a long time. Everyone is surprised he wasn't lifted by police years ago'.
With a history of mental health and drug problems and three children being looked after by other people, his first victim Leah Ware, 33, was extremely vulnerable.
After splitting from a long-term boyfriend, she had stumbled into a series of abusive relationships.
She took crack cocaine and heroin but with no job she turned to prostitution to fund her habit.
It was on the AdultWork website and that 'Miss CC' or Leah Ware first met Mark Brown in March 2018.
Stewart Old, the landlord of the flat where Brown eventually set her up, said he thought they were a genuine couple because they told him they had £100,000 in the bank and were planning on building their own home.
He said Brown paid for the deposit and six month tenancy in full in advance and moved into the property in time for Christmas 2018.
Mr Old said problems surfaced quickly with the sound of shouting and arguments emanating from the flat.
They smoked cigarettes and cannabis despite a no smoking rule and a dog was moved in despite a no pets restriction.
They left after six months and Ms Ware spent time living with friends and she saw less of Brown.
However he tracked her down and offered her a place to stay at the farm, moving her into a static caravan.
Ms Ware got two dogs, Lady, a Pomeranian and Duke, a mastiff. She also got three goats and a horse called Bertie and planted flowers to make it homely.
After the owners of the farm became suspicious someone was living there, in contravention to the rental agreement, Brown torched the caravan. Ms Ware was forced to move into a windowless metal shipping container he had installed in the barn.
With a history of mental health and drug problems and three children being looked after by other people, Brown's first victim Leah Ware (pictured), 33, was extremely vulnerable
As the secret relationship developed, Brown became increasingly controlling of Ms Ware, asking who she was seeing and checking up on her.
He would even padlock her into the barn while he was at work.
A friend of Brown's, Tony Deeprose, who parked a lorry at the farm, arrived to find Ms Ware had been locked into the main barn without any 50p pieces to feed the electricity meter.
He said Ms Ware texted him saying: 'Mark locks me in' and when he arrived, he found that the barn had been secured by padlocks.
Ms Ware told a friend, Tara Casey, his jealousy and controlling behaviour was so bad she was fearful he might do her harm.
She told her Brown had once tied and gagged her in the boot of a car and then videoed himself having sex with her, claiming it was an elaborate ruse to scare someone.
Just two days before she died - May 5 - Ms Ware went on a drugs binge and had sex with her drug dealer, Jack Tyler.
She returned to her shipping container home the same day but met up with another male friend on May 6.
It was in the shipping container, the prosecution claim, Ms Ware was murdered by Brown on the evening of May 7 last year.
Later he sent a chilling text an old school friend, Elizabeth Howard, with whom he had rekindled a friendship.
In it he said: 'Now I'm going to be very careful how I word this but it happened again, not very long ago, while disposing of something.
'I try to laugh these things off, but it's a very unpleasant thing to do: old oil drum, five litres of diesel, hey presto nothing much left - but it gets hot, very hot; oil drum glows almost white. You go through a lot of stages in a situation like that'.
He then went on to say: 'Things I've done weigh heavily on my heart, in my head and soul, a psychopath with a conscience. It's a joke really'.
Just weeks after Ms Ware's disappearance Brown met Alex Morgan, 34, through the AdultWork website.
He and Ms Morgan, a mother-of-two, met several times for sex and he would drive 20 miles to deliver cocaine to her home.
She enjoyed taking drugs at weekends and had turned to sex work to fund her lifestyle.
Although Ms Morgan was close to her parents, they had no idea their daughter was working as an escort.
The former dog groomer, who lived in her own home, would regularly drop off her two sons to be cared for by their grandparents.
She and Brown met up on several occasions for sex, either at her detached home in Sissinghurst, Kent or in his shipping container at the farm.
But then, out of the blue, Brown told her he could get her an easy £100,000 if she helped him with a job at a hotel where he did night security.
Telling her to keep quiet about the offer, he said it would take just 3-5 days and all she would need to do was turn up at the hotel, do some shopping, bag up cash and hang around and the money would be hers.
Just weeks after Leah's disappearance Brown met Alex Morgan (pictured), 34, through the adultwork.com website.
Desperate for money to open her own dog grooming business, Ms Morgan fell for the lure.
Telling her parents she was going on a spa retreat in York with some friends, she asked them to look after her sons from Saturday November 13, assuring them she would return on Wednesday.
On Remembrance Sunday 2021 - November 14 - she dressed glamorously for the job and headed to the farm in her cream Mini Cooper.
She stopped for £10 of fuel, a coffee and a snack at the Shell petrol station at 7.20am.
Station manager, Rose McAuley, 32, a friend for 17 years, told police she was obviously going somewhere special.
She said: 'She was more done up than I've ever seen her before. And she came in very early in the morning which was unlike her'.
It was the last time she was ever seen.
Her family reported her missing after she failed to return on Wednesday to pick up her boys and police launched a search.
It later became clear Ms Morgan had become very suspicious of Brown and his £100,000 offer and had left a series of clues for police.
On a table downstairs a note read: 'Let's go rollerblading!'
And in her son's rollerblading box, police found a note detailing the meeting with Brown on the 14th, a large sum of cash, a mobile phone and PIN and an address where she may be found.
As they knew where she had driven, police were able to track her car on CCTV as it made its way to Hastings.
CCTV at a scrap metal merchants close to the farm shows the Mini entering the farm at 8.00am followed by Brown driving his gold Jaguar.
She never left the farm alive.
Two weeks later fragments of her bone and teeth were found in an oil drum on a building site in Sevenoaks, Kent, where Brown had been working. Her jewellery, a handbag and hair straighteners were also found.
Brown told a jury he 'panicked' and burnt her body after Ms Morgan suffered a catastrophic head injury when she tripped over at the farm.
Those claims turned out to be baseless lies when a jury found him guilty of murdering both women.
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