Michael Sams (born 11 August 1941) is an English rapist, kidnapper, extortionist and murderer who kidnapped Julie Dart on 9 July 1991 and Stephanie Slater on 22 January 1992.[1]
In July 1993, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of an 18-year-old Leeds resident Julie Dart.[2] and the abduction of Slater. Sams had originally denied murdering Dart but later confessed.[3] Sams had denied the charges in court but confessed to police in prison three days after he was found guilty.[4]
Sams has continued to offend since he was first imprisoned, attacking a female probation officer with a metal spike. He received an addition of eight years to his term for this act.[5]
He was awarded £4,000 damages when the prison service lost his artificial leg when moving him from one prison to another. He also attempted to sue Slater for libel claiming that he never raped her. He has also brought a civil case because he thinks that his prison bed is too hard.[6]
Sams made the news again in April 2007 when, in a letter to Inside Time, he claimed that "OAPs in prison are far better off than those in the community."[7][8]
Sams was a competitive middle distance runner before contracting the disease that caused him to lose his leg.
As of 2008, he is currently being held at Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire.