We have all heard of Jigsaw, the popular protagonist in the Saw franchise movies. However, the UK has a real-life Jigsaw killer.

Stephen Marshall earned the nickname from the media when he stabbed his landlord, Jeffrey Howe, and scattered his dismembered body across two counties.

Jeffrey Howe had taken pity on Marshall when he needed somewhere to stay, letting him live with his girlfriend, Sarah Bush, in his flat. Jeffrey had met Marshall through his work as a kitchen salesman; they were also drinking buddies.

The couple took advantage of the kind gesture. Marshall (38) and Bush (21) took over the property and sold Jeffrey’s possessions online. They then went further, emptying Jeffrey’s bank account.

Marshall planned to kill Jeffrey and then take over his identity.

Stephen Marshall

Born in 1971, Marshall was a British bodybuilder, personal trainer, and former nightclub doorman.

He grew up in the UK and developed his initial career around fitness and security. At one point, he even owned his own gym in Hertfordshire.

During the 1990s, he worked as a doorman in London. It was during this time that he established links to London’s criminal underworld, specifically one notorious crime family.

He had a history of violent offences, including assault and battery, criminal damage, possession of drugs, and possession of a firearm.

He was described as highly volatile and prone to severe mood swings. This behaviour escalated as his cocaine addiction did.

Body Parts

With a deteriorating financial and personal life in 2008, Marshall had nowhere to stay. That is when Jeffrey offered to let him live rent-free in his flat.

On 8th or 9th March 2009, Marshall stabbed Jeffrey to death. The couple then straight away started accessing his bank account and selling his possessions, even selling his car on eBay.

The murder was discovered when members of the public found body parts. His left leg was found in a lay-by in Hertfordshire.

A week later, an arm was discovered forty minutes away on a grass verge. Two days after that, a farmer found his head, one hundred miles away. The head had been mutilated to make identification harder.

Finally, his torso and arm were discovered in a suitcase in a ditch in Hertfordshire.

The scattered remains initially made it difficult to identify the victim. The police started by releasing certain physical details to the public.

After Jeffrey’s friends and family reported him missing, dental records led to the remains being identified.

Investigation

Having identified Jeffrey, the police went to his flat and discovered Marshall living there. The couple claimed that Howe had just packed up and left. Officers, however, noticed that Marshall appeared nervous during questioning.

It was not long after the identification that detectives discovered Marshall had previously lived close to where some of the body parts were discovered.

A forensic team was sent to the flat. Despite the attempted clean-up, they discovered traces of Jeffrey’s blood in the bedroom, bathroom, and beneath the carpets.

Microscopic green fibres from a T-shirt found in Marshall’s bedroom matched fibres that had come from the duct tape wrapped around some of the body parts.

Marshall’s digital footprint was the next thing to raise suspicion. CCTV caught the couple selling Jeffrey’s possessions, and their eBay sales were linked to them. The police then spent time tracing the vehicle journeys the couple had taken to dispose of the body.

Conviction

Marshall had boasted to friends of his skill at butchering corpses, saying he had similarly disposed of four other men during the 1990s. Bush had also admitted to her friends when drunk that Marshall had killed Jeffrey.

Faced with the mounting evidence, Marshall admitted to dismembering the body and disposing of it but denied murder. He later changed his plea to guilty.

The judge who sentenced Marshall told him he would serve a minimum of thirty-six years in prison.

Bush was acquitted of murder but was given two concurrent sentences for helping dispose of the body parts and giving false information to the police during the investigation. She was sentenced to three years and nine months. Her lawyer still maintains that she acted under pressure from Marshall, scared of what might happen to her if she did not help him cover his tracks. The judge noted Bush received a relatively lenient sentence due to her background, having spent most of her life in care before falling into prostitution, alongside the loss of her first child at just 10 days old.

Marshall and Bush took the generosity of Jeffrey to offer them a place to stay and murdered him for financial gain. Marshall will not be eligible for parole until 2046.

Bush served 45 months (just under four years) of her sentence before being released from prison.

My name is Thomas. I am fourteen; currently, I am lying in an alleyway in Greater Manchester, fighting for my life. It is 8 pm on Sunday 29 June 2003; the police have been called. I have multiple stab wounds.

Standing beside me is my best friend Craig; he is fifteen and staying with me until help arrives. He will tell the police that a hooded knifeman stabbed me. He is lying. They will find this out when they look at the CCTV. It was Craig who stabbed me. I asked him to, in a roundabout way. Let me start from the beginning.

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Breck Bednar represented every parent’s modern nightmare: he met someone he didn’t know online. If you have children, you understand the dread this causes. Tragically, Breck’s story ended in the most devastating way possible.

On 17th February 2014, the fourteen-year-old lied to his parents and travelled to meet Lewis Daynes, a nineteen-year-old computer engineer, at his flat in Grays, Essex.

Daynes had been grooming Breck for several months on gaming sites. While Breck was one of many boys Daynes targeted online, he was the one who ultimately decided to meet the sadistic killer in person.

The Grooming Process

Online, Daynes used the handle EagleOne Six and befriended Breck within a gaming group on TeamSpeak. Other members of the group later described Daynes as a controlling ringmaster who dictated the circle’s social dynamics.

The pair spent hundreds of hours playing tactical shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. During these sessions, Daynes manipulated Breck by claiming he worked for the US government. He promised Breck immense wealth and fame if he joined Daynes’ fictional computer business.

After exchanging a barrage of social media messages and spending hours in shared gameplay, Breck agreed to meet. Daynes coached him on exactly what to tell his parents to avoid suspicion. On 16th February, Breck set off; he would lose his life the following day.

Daynes had meticulously planned the encounter for weeks. Investigation revealed he had purchased duct tape, syringes, and condoms online well in advance of Breck’s arrival.

The Attack and Immediate Aftermath

Once Breck arrived at the flat, Daynes bound his wrists and ankles with duct tape. He later held a knife to the boy’s throat and killed him. Forensic evidence suggests Breck died within seconds.

While the precise timeline of the afternoon remains murky, investigators believe the murder was driven by sadistic sexual motivation. Evidence indicated that sexual activity had occurred before the killing. Horrifyingly, after the murder, Daynes sent photos of Breck’s body to two of his online friends.

Daynes then showered and changed his clothes before calmly calling 999. He fabricated a story, claiming he had stabbed Breck during an altercation while trying to prevent the boy from self-harming.

During the call, Daynes claimed he and the 14-year-old had got into an “altercation,” adding: “Only one of us came out alive.”

When officers arrived, they found Breck’s body in the bedroom. Any initial doubt about Daynes’ story vanished when they discovered his computer equipment submerged in the bath; a desperate attempt to destroy digital evidence of his grooming and planning.

Profile of the Perpetrator

Lewis Daynes had a history of rejection and isolation. He had been taken into foster care at a young age after his mother moved abroad. Those who knew him noted that he seemed more at home in virtual worlds than in the real one. It is also suggested that his emotional immaturity led him to gravitate toward younger teenagers whom he could more easily dominate.

However, background trauma never excuses such depravity. Many young people face similar hardships without turning to violence. The level of cold-blooded planning and manipulation points to a psychopathy far beyond his years.

As is common in such cases, there was a clear escalation in behaviour. Had previous red flags been addressed, Daynes might have been stopped long before he met Breck.

Police Failings and Previous Allegations

The case raised serious questions regarding police conduct. Three years before he murdered Breck, Daynes had been arrested on suspicion of raping another fifteen-year-old boy.

These offences were reported to Essex Police in 2011, yet the force chose not to take action. When Daynes was finally brought in for Breck’s murder, his record revealed five previous allegations against him.

None had been pursued due to claims of “no realistic prospect of conviction.” One must ask: if the victim had not been a young male, would these reports have been treated with more urgency? Cases like that of Stephen Port suggest that systemic prejudice within the police service often leaves vulnerable groups unprotected.

Family Advocacy and Legal Action

Breck’s mother, Lorin LaFave, had grown increasingly terrified of Daynes’ influence. She even confronted Daynes online and reported her concerns to Surrey Police in December 2013.

She stated to the police that she had strong fears that her son was being groomed and manipulated, by an older man online.

Despite her plea, no effective intervention took place. Two months later, Breck was dead. The family subsequently launched legal action against both Essex and Surrey Police for their failure to handle the initial report. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) also launched an investigation, issuing misconduct notices to several officers.

The legal battle resulted in an undisclosed settlement, a formal apology, and a commitment to procedural reforms. Today, Breck’s parents work closely with law enforcement to improve training and raise awareness through the Breck Foundation, aiming to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.

Lewis Daynes pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Crown Court and was sentenced to serve a minimum of twenty-five years in prison. He will be eligible for release when he is forty-four; with half of his life still ahead of him, a luxury never afforded to Breck Bednar.

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Victorian London is one of the most fascinating times in criminal history, not just because of Jack the Ripper but also because of the other murderers that lurked on the streets.

Some were women, claiming they were looking after unwanted children. Some were poverty-stricken people trying to find a way to make a living. Others were mere children.

The subject of this case could be described as a cold-blooded psychopath, but that description does not sit comfortably with what he became in later life. What made Robert Coombs a murderer, only for him to later earn medals of bravery during wartime?

The Coombs Family

In 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert and his twelve-year-old brother Nathaniel spent the hot summer days roaming London. They were without parental guidance and much of their time was free.

Their father, Robert senior, worked for a steam company and spent long stretches away from home. Neighbours said, their mother, Emily, was a good wife, mother and housekeeper.

On 5 July 1895, Robert senior boarded a steamship bound for New York City. He left his wife with enough money to care for the boys and promised he would return with stories of America.

Three days later, the boys went to watch the cricket at Lord’s. On their way out, a neighbour asked Robert about the rent. Robert replied that he would pay it, as his mother was visiting a rich uncle in Liverpool, and he handed over the money.

Home Alone

At first, neighbours were not worried. Emily was known to travel to her family up north frequently. When they asked again, however, the story changed. They were told that Emily had suffered a fit and was resting at home.

Again, there was no immediate concern, as the boys were often seen with a friend of their father, John Fox. Later, it was established that Fox worked for the same company as Robert senior and may have had a learning difficulty.

When the money left by Robert senior ran short, it was Fox who began pawning the family jewellery. He also went to their father’s company and asked for an advance, claiming Emily was ill and that they needed more money.

The company grew suspicious and contacted Robert’s sister, also named Emily Coombs.

Emily Coombs

On 15 July, Emily arrived at the family home. Fox denied her entry. She questioned the boys as to where their mother was, and again Robert insisted she had gone to Liverpool to visit family. When Fox was pressed, he claimed his mother was out visiting a friend. The conflicting stories raised alarm.

Two days later, Emily returned with a friend. This time they gained entry. The boys and Fox were playing cards. Once again, they were told his mother was visiting a friend. However, the women believed she was inside the house and refused to leave until the police arrived.

While waiting, the women went upstairs and found a locked door. They obtained a key from the landlord and entered the bedroom. There they found the decomposing body of Emily Coombs, Robert’s mother.

When the police arrived shortly after, they discovered a knife on the bed and a truncheon on the floor. Both were identified as the murder weapons. The boys were questioned immediately.

Arrest and Trial

Nathaniel told the police that he had nothing to do with the murder, claiming it had happened while he was asleep.

Robert, on the other hand, admitted he killed his mother, saying he had no choice as she was beating Nathaniel for stealing. He confessed to stabbing her and to selling the family valuables to survive.

When questioned, Robert showed no emotion. He even admitted spraying his mother’s body with disinfectant to mask the smell. He displayed all the signs of a psychopath.

Some believed his claim of acting to protect his brother. Others argued that Robert was addicted to lurid penny dreadfuls, which may have encouraged him to kill.

Despite stipulations under The Children’s Act, which stated boys under fourteen and girls under sixteen were not criminally responsible, both brothers and Fox were tried at West Ham Court to determine their level of responsibility.

Nathaniel was soon released and acted as a witness for the prosecution.

The trial began on 16 September at the Old Bailey. Robert senior gave evidence, stating his eldest son had suffered terrible headaches and had been a difficult birth. During the trial, Robert showed little emotion. On one occasion, he was even observed laughing at the judge.

The final witness was George Edward Walker, medical officer at Holloway where Robert had been held before trial. He stated that Robert suffered from severe mental health issues and had written to a neighbour declaring he did not care if he were hanged for killing his mother, as it would save him from committing suicide.

Robert was found guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Broadmoor. Fox was acquitted.

Life After Broadmoor

Robert remained in Broadmoor until 1910, when he was released at thirty. He later followed his brother to Australia. During World War I, he enlisted as a stretcher-bearer in the Gallipoli campaign. The regimented life of the army mirrored the structure of the asylum, offering him both security and camaraderie.

He was wounded twice, but still saved fellow soldiers, earning the Military Medal in 1916.

After the war, Robert became a farmer in New South Wales and lived a quiet life. In 1930, he took on the care of Harry Mulville, an eleven-year-old boy from a neighbouring farm who his stepfather had physically abused.

When World War II began, Robert enlisted again, despite being in his mid-fifties. He was medically discharged before seeing action.

Robert Coombs, the boy who murdered his mother, who spent years in Broadmoor, and who became a decorated war hero, died on 7 May 1949. He left everything to his adopted son, Harry Mulville.

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