By Calvin Palmer
A school caretaker received a life sentence at the Old Bailey, London, today for killing his lover after spiking her omelet with sleeping pills.
Stephen Singer punched Dina Sharpe three times in the face and head, causing the brain damage from which she died, and then trapped her in a burning bedroom.
Judge Stephen Kramer said Singer had committed the murder to find a “chilling” solution to a complex love triangle and ordered he serve a minimum of 23 years in prison.
Singer, 37, was also jailed concurrently for 20 years for the attempted murder of a toddler in the flat, in Southwark, south London, and for six years for arson.
The judge praised neighbors who tried to save Sharpe, 39, a school cleaner, after she called for help from a window of the fourth-floor flat.
After breaking down her door, they rescued a 17-month-old boy from the flames.
The court was told that Singer had been having a three-year relationship with Sharpe while living with another woman.
When the woman found out about his affair, she threw him out of their home.
At the same time, Sharpe found out that Singer was trying to get back with his long-term partner.
On Sunday 2 August, Singer bought sleeping tablets and lighter fuel before going to Sharpe’s home.
After he calmly left and rode off on his motorcycle, Sharpe’s cries were heard and she was seen calling for help from a window.
He had planned the murder, grinding up sleeping pills earlier in the evening and trying to sedate Sharpe by adding them to an omelet he had cooked for her, and to her wine. He had set fire to the apartment to cover up his “calculating and callous” crime.
The judge told him: “You are a controlling person who was prepared chillingly to use aggression and deceit to take control of a complex triangle of your own making.”
Andrew Munday QC, prosecuting, said the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, survived but had 75 percent burns and was still undergoing extensive plastic surgery.
He said Sharpe died from brain damage due to injuries to her head and face, not from the fire.
After her death, her blood was found to contain sleeping pills. Items from the flat were re-examined and the same drug was found in wine and in half an omelet.
“Not only did he spike the omelet, but also the wine,” said Munday.”He made an omelet but left his half. There was a plan by this defendant to cause her a fatal overdose or at least to incapacitate her.”
Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Carl Mehta said: “This is an absolutely horrific case and the level of callousness and brutality used by Singer to plan and execute the murder is just unimaginable.”
[Based on a report by The Guardian.]
19 Comments
July 13, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I don’t understand the twenty seven year thing.
Why did he not get at the very least, life???????Isn’t that an oxymoron.he should get life!!!!!!!
I am a firm believer in the death penalty if there is NO doubt as to the perpetrator .
This is soooo horrible.
That poor child.
Twenty seven years……..baloney!
Even adding the twenty years for the child it is a travesty.
Does England not have the death penalty ?????And why not.
July 13, 2009 at 6:00 pm
A life sentence in Britain is term in prison of indeterminate length. The judge normally recommends the minimum a prisoner should serve before he or she is eligible for parole. In some serious cases, it can indeed be for the prisoner’s life.
It seems more sensible to me than sentencing someone like Madoff to 150 years in prison. It may have escaped the American judiciary but people do not live for 150 years or 99 years or whatever other silly figures they dream up.
Capital punishment was abolished in the UK in 1969; it had been suspended for five years in 1965.
In 1999, high treason and piracy with violence were removed as capital crimes.
British policing fails to live up to the “high” standards of those in America, with many notable cases of people being wrongly convicted of murder and then being granted a pardon. But it is rather difficult to pardon someone who has been executed. Sorree! doesn’t quite cut it.
Like I say, it is a moot point in America where no one is ever wrongly convicted.
July 14, 2009 at 12:25 am
Whoa…you really hate us Americans don’t you….or at best think we are idiots. Well.you have a basis for that opinion no doubt.
However most of us think as you do pretty closely.Our legal system is not the best…but neither is yours.
I believe personally that if there is NO doubt as to who the killer is by using all the modern DNA testing and other forensics then I think that person should forfeit his life.It’s a heinous choice they made.No sympathy is due.
There is something to remember and that is the victim.The degree of “sickness” of the murderer is off the charts of humanity in most cases. Horrible inhuman acts.
Each system of law and order in each country has it’s merit.And each it’s short comings.
Your last sentence(tounge in cheek) is not correct.
It’s interesting to see points of view outside this country. That’s why I read this blog for the most part.
I try to learn and observe basic thinking on across the board subjects.I find we are all flawed everywhere in the world and in every philosophy.
I hope we can all pull together one day or the human race can easily become extinct.it won’t take much.
July 14, 2009 at 12:29 am
By the way,thank you for the information on how the British system works………..I will read up on it . Very interesting.
Thanks
July 14, 2009 at 12:59 am
The British legal system has one distinct advantage over the American one — its judges cannot be bought.
I can hardly “hate” Americans when I am married to one. I just have a slightly cynical view of the world and, as you detected, most of my comments tend to be somewhat sardonic and tongue-in-cheek. It’s a British trait.
Some Americans are indeed idiots. Take the Wicked Witch of Wasilla, for instance, described by Christopher Hitchens as “an insult to democracy”. “Idiot” hardly does her justice or her supporters. Thankfully, a good many Americans are equally appalled by her and everything she represents — what I term medieval America.
July 14, 2009 at 5:33 am
You are referring to Sarah Palin I presume?Can’t stand her.
I have to say that I agree about most of the “idiot” remarks about we Americans.My cheeks are quite red when I think of all the stupid mistakes we are making. Ones I fear cannot be stopped from snowballing us over the cliff.
I am looking into moving to John O’Groats Scotland!!! lol!!!!
My health may not hold but I am staying positive.My house is for sale……….
I wish I could wave the flag but I cannot . For all the reasons you mention and more.
I guess time will tell the story.It’s just a ship of fools.
July 14, 2009 at 12:24 pm
The bible that many Americans are so fond of says “thou shall not kill”. Surely that commandment is applicable to both criminal and judiciary. There is enough evidence to suggest that the death penalty is no deterrent, so to execute as a retribution is a bit “eye for an eye” in my view, and such barbaric practices do not belong in the C21st. (Better the guilty rot in jail). Unfortunately the attitudes of many Americans I have encountered are straight out of the C17th. How they can consider themselves Christians is beyond me.
July 14, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Weird isn’t it Andy?
Oxymorons abound.
Christianity is the boot in the mud here in the US as I see it.
There are those of us who do not subscribe to wearing blinders , and prefer to think rationally and for ourselves.
My comment on the death penalty comes from sheer cellular horror felt every time I read the the heinous details of a murder.It’s my non religious personal belief that wants that person “gone”.Languishing in a cell , or getting “life” is just that.They get life.Life.I struggle with that. I see them as animals of the lowest order just upright and on two legs .I am aware of the arguments against the death penalty, and they are valid if you want to burn the midnight oil in debate.
It’s a very personal thought and it doesn’t come under the heading of right or wrong legally or religiously as far as I am concerned.
Our far right Christian people here in the US thump their Bibles and hate with a venom unlike any other.Their hate and “rightness” has drawn a line in the sand that some of us see as completely out of sinc with rational thinking.
Don’t paint all of us in America with too broad a brush.I am sure that not ALL mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.
July 14, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I don’t think we are in very good company. Here are the governments that executed people last year: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, USA, Vietnam, Yemen. Capital punishment does not work. It is not a deterrent. It fosters a culture of violence.
July 14, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Thank gawd there is no violence in England.
You are so liberal there that you are losing your country to Islam.
So it won’t be too long before the Sharia law takes over.THEN what are you going to do?
Move to Scotland with me I suppose.
Hey,what you are saying is violence begets violence.Can’t argue with that.
Boy this world is just getting shittier and shittier.
The big bad dogs are taking over….We either fight back or succumb.
What shall we do with the murderers then?I believe you said just let them rot in prison where they can sleep ,eat, shower, smoke,watch tv,write a book,get free dental and medical, run a business, have a web site,get married,get free counseling etc. etc.?????????
I sure don’t mind paying for that do you…happy to.I can always work three jobs so that they can suck air.Yep…my pleasure.
And think of all the prisons that need to be built to house these animals.IT’S JOBS FOR US OUT HERE!!!!!!!!Cool.
I think there is a certain type of horrific murderer that just needs to be put to sleep.I have no idea what the percentages are.Very few in the overall number of prisoners.The majority are lifers or serve their time and get out.
Ya got me cornered with those facts Glen P.Up up and away.
July 16, 2009 at 11:46 am
Actually violent crime in the UK is apparently on the decline…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8153392.stm
Killings at the lowest in 20 years. A national figure of 648. I bet the figures for Jacksonville alone aren’t far off that. They’d be a lot less in the US if guns were outlawed.
July 16, 2009 at 1:47 pm
I agree Andy.
I was curious about the crime rate there……..thanks for the fill in.
July 16, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I worry much more about the high rate of imprisonment in the US. Actually, the crime rate has been steadily going down since the early 1990s (thanks to Roe v. Wade, of all things) but we are building more prisons and incarcerating more citizens (mostly minorities) for ever more minor crimes. The Republicans like to scare us with this claim of violence in the US streets. The same with “terrorism.” I don’t buy any of it. It is one more method of control by those who “have.”
July 17, 2009 at 11:01 pm
The only figures I found were for Florida as a whole. There were 1,168 murders in 2008, and 780 involved a firearm. So almost the double the murder rate of the entire UK in just one state. Sobering.
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/getdoc/4f6a6cd0-6479-4f4f-a5a4-cd260e4119d8/CIF_Annual08.aspx
I agree with you Glen. The same is happening in the UK too.
July 18, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I am interested and aware of the “fear” tactics used to control a population etc. etc. I wondered if it came under the heading of Fascism tactically. Well……it does and it doesn’t. That title goes pretty much all over the map(no pun).
To define it is almost impossible.Historically it has many turns and tacts.
I went to Empire. That is a term best defined perhaps by the British….who were the champs at that.But if you look at modern times and what America is and has been up to it certainly fits.But not quite……….just in part.
Carl Rove and his henchmen had it down.His historical grasp of how to manipulate through fear and patriotism etc. set this nation adrift.Old Bush being dumb as a stick was the perfect puppet.The Bush family being in bed with the Fed made it a ripe move.He should be hung in the town square like Benito.
The greed and insatiable need for power in the human psyche propels the unraveling of humanity in my view.So we get all these agendas.We get these terms……….
There is a term that is escaping me at the moment for the “fear” governments use to create control of a people.Help me out Andy/Glen.
July 19, 2009 at 6:55 am
The word is Imperialism…..pretty straight forward.
re; empire
imperialist act etc.
July 19, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Zelda – this might interest you…
http://www.andrewpointon.com/2009/02/05/a-totalitarians-tick-list
July 19, 2009 at 11:00 pm
Thank you Andy……just what I wanted to read.!
Do you have any info on how we (the people) can get our hands on the reins?Historically and or theory?
Is it possible to get this political damp blanket off our backs???In this country we have not taken to the streets against the systematic take over of our civil liberties.The secret “they” don’t want the people to know is that the people have the power to kick these bastards out….one way or the other.We need leaders…….I see none on the horizon.Tricky to be that person…………personal safety is a looming issue obviously as history proves.
BY the people, FOR the people seems sadly a rusty thought.
All this Fascism stuff makes me mad as hell.What a world.
July 19, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Thanks again Andy…….
Orwellian for sure. I have been quoting that thought for years……..
The stats are sobering.