Afternoon:
10°c
Face of Sally Anne suspect
Evening Standard 18 Feb 2008This is the first photograph to be published of the man accused of murdering Sally Anne Bowman in a savage knife and sex attack.
Pub chef Mark Dixie, 37, denies stabbing the 18-year-old aspiring model in the drive of her Croydon home in September 2005 while he was high on cocaine.
The Streatham-born father of three admits having sex with her as she lay in a pool of blood - but claims she was already dead when he found her. The prosecution at the Old Bailey described his claim as "astonishing".
An order prohibiting publication of his picture was lifted this afternoon by Judge Gerald Gordon after a Thai woman gave evidence of how she was allegedly stabbed and sexually assaulted by Dixie in Australia in 1998.
The economics student, now 30, said she was attacked by the chef while he was working in Perth. She testified from behind a screen.
She said she was getting ready for bed at a friend's house when a man wearing a stocking over his head climbed through the window. He had a knife.
She said: "The first thing he said was 'Do you have any money?' He was quite excited, talking quite fast. I said: 'No, please don't do anything.'
"He told me to take off my top. I got scared at him because he was a bit angry. I started to scream and I kicked him. He stabbed me. I think he tried to turn me around and then started stabbing me. I had my back to him. I think he threw me on the floor."
She was stabbed eight times and blacked out. She woke to find her knickers round her knees. Brian Altman, prosecuting, asked: "Did you think the man had sex with you?" She said: "I think, yes."
The witness spent five days in hospital with a collapsed lung. Last May forensic tests on her clothes showed stains matching Dixie's DNA profile, the court heard.
During cross-examination, the woman denied being a prostitute at the time because she was short of money. Asked if she had sex with a man shown to her in a photograph, she said: "No, it is not right. I do not even see this guy before and I do not need the money because my family support me for everything."
Dixie allegedly stabbed Miss Bowman seven times and then had sex with her dead body. He claims she was killed by someone else.
The trial continues.
