Michael Sams

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For the similarly named British musician and vocal session arranger, see Mike Sammes.

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. He was also a successful businessman, running a heating firm, until his illness that led to his leg amputation in 1975. After which, Sams fell in with petty criminals and was first imprisoned for a false car tax disc in 1976.

As of 2013, he is currently being held at Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire.

Out of the £175,000 ransom that was paid for the release of Slater, Police located £150,000 buried in a field by using Ground Penetrating Radar. The remaining £25,000 was never recovered.

Radio 4 interview

On BBC Radio 4's "One to One" programme, Carolyn Quinn spoke to Stephanie Slater. Slater said that for eight days she was held, handcuffed, legs bound, blindfolded and gagged, in a "coffin" inside a wheelie bin laid horizontally. Sams had told her she would be electrocuted if she tried to move. Slater said that when she was allowed out of the coffin for food, she chatted about herself to Sams, both "to humanise" herself and to increase her chances of survival. Within 12 hours of her release, she was made to face a press conference, even though she was still drugged and highly distressed. Police now acknowledge that this was much too soon.[9]

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ Tingle, Len. Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: The Price of Justice?, BBC News, November 6, 2003. Accessed June 4, 2008
  3. ↑ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980816/ai_n14179797.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ 's+killers+put+behind+bars+by+former+CID+boss-a060745810
  5. ↑ Haldenby, Andrew. "Sams receives further 8 years for cell attack". The Daily Telegraph (London). 
  6. ↑ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4153/is_20000119/ai_n9537565.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑ "State pension for prisoners". Inside Time. 2007-04-18. Retrieved 2007-04-30. 
  8. ↑ "Jail life better for pensioners". BBC. 2007-04-18. Retrieved 2007-04-30. 
  9. ↑ BBC Radio 4, "One to One", 10 September 2013.
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