Eastbourne Murder Sites - Gearing Cottages, Friday Street, Eastbourne

Murder Site

Gearing Cottages, Friday Street, Eastbourne

Date - 21st May 2002

Victim - Saffra Leanne Coleman (1981-2002)

Murderer - Steven Foster Gander (1975- )

KILLER JAILED FOR LIFE                                                 

Wednesday 2 October 2002 

TWISTED killer Stephen Gander has been jailed for life after he murdered his ex-girlfriend and then locked their 20-month-old daughter in the same room as the body.Seven hours later, after police were alerted to the crime, they found toddler Layla Coleman cuddled up next to her dead mother Saffra.Blonde-haired Saffra, 21, had split from Gander six weeks before being killed.He bludgeoned her with a hammer before throttling her with a piece of rope.He fell into a 'black rage' after claiming Saffra said she would deny him access to their daughter in the middle of the row at her new home in Friday Street, Langney.Gander, 26, of Linden Close, Eastbourne, admitted murder and was jailed for life by Judge Richard Brown who described it as an 'horrendous act of violence'.Saffra's new boyfriend Jonathan Dixon had left the couple's home at 7am in the morning, Lewes Crown Court heard.Prosecutor Richard Cherrill said, 'When he got home he found the apparently lifeless body of Saffra on the floor of the living room.'He said that Saffra had previously fled to a women's refuge after violence from Gander.'The defendant had been fiercely possessive and issued threats if she were to ever leave him.'Mr Cherrill said, 'The defendant said there was an argument and then a physical confrontation.'He picked up the claw hammer which he said had been on top of the television.'He said he hit her three times with it and she had fallen to the ground and then he sat down on her and used the rope to wrap around her neck.'He said he had then applied the pressure to the ligature for no more than a minute and stopped when she coughed.'Gander claimed to have attempted an overdose after having carried out the murder but was arrested the next day after contacting detectives.He told medics, 'I want to die, I don't want treatment, I deserve to die.'Andrew Campbell-Tiech, defending, said, 'He committed a monstrous act.A crime of passion is often a crime of rejection, and it was the rejection that caused the explosion of rage and death.'Mr Cambell-Tiech said, 'A black rage come done on him' after Saffra told him he would not see their daughter again because of his violence.'