On the run murderer Miguel Da Silva found guilty - Susan Joyce Martin killer finally receives a life sentence at Old Bailey

Published: 12 November 2010
by JOSH LOEB

A MURDERER who escaped from a secure medical facility and went on the run for 15 years was sentenced to life in prison on Friday. 

Miguel Da Silva, 40, a Portuguese national of no fixed abode, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of strangling Susan Joyce Martin, 44, a mother of two children, at her flat in Aldridge Road Villas, Westbourne Park, on September 25 1994.

The following day he walked into Paddington Green police station with blood on his hands and confessed that he had “had a fight with Suzie” and had “beat her up”. He was arrested, remanded at an Ealing hospital, and charged with murder. But while awaiting trial he escaped.

The Metropolitan Police eventually traced him to Spain and he was extradited back to the UK earlier this year.

Ms Martin’s daughter, Sarah Martin, said: “I have been in limbo for the past 16 years. It still feels like it happened yesterday and I feel the same rawness as I felt then. It is fair to say that when my mother was killed, our family fell apart. 

“She was the best mum a child could wish for. She was brilliant in every way.”

Sarah also told the court how her sorrow had been intensified by the fact that her mother had never had the chance to meet her three grandchildren.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, of the homicide and serious crime command in Belgravia, who led the investigation, said: “I pay tribute to the family’s courage and sincerely hope that the conviction … brings some solace and the beginnings of some closure for them. No murder investigation is ever over until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. This case demonstrates that. Despite the passage of time Da Silva was hunted down and has been held to account for his actions thanks to the determination of the police.”