Life and career

Sally Anne attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. She had dreams of one day appearing on the cover of Vogue magazine and also being the next Kate Moss.

In January 2005, she joined Pulse Model Management, a local talent agency. Sally took part in the Swatch Alternative Fashion Week in April of the same year and described her experience there. "I was so nervous all week particularly when all the models were lined up and the designers chose who they wanted to model their clothes - luckily I was picked by loads of designers which gave me more confidence."

Murder

In 2005 Bowman was stabbed in the neck and stomach, and then raped as she lay dead or dying. Her handbag, cardigan, bra, thong and mobile phone were stolen. Mark Dixie was accused and charged with the assault and murder of Bowman. At the Old Bailey on 22 February 2008, Dixie was found guilty of Bowman's murder by a jury of seven women and five men after only two days of deliberation. The jury sat for three hours and Dixie was found guilty by a unanimous verdict. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum of 34 years, by which time he will be 70 years old. This is among the longest minimum terms ever imposed upon a single murderer. It was then revealed that Dixie was already a convicted serial sex offender.

Following Dixie's conviction, Detective Superintendent Stuart Cundy, who had led the Bowman investigation, said: "It is my opinion that a national DNA register — with all its appropriate safeguards — could have identified Sally Anne's murderer within 24 hours. Instead it took nearly nine months before Mark Dixie was identified, and almost two-and-a-half years for justice to be done."

Police had initially treated Sally Anne Bowman's boyfriend Lewis Sproston as a suspect; he was the last person known to have seen alive and admitted that they'd argued just before she left. He was subsequently arrested but DNA evidence eliminated him as a suspect within hours.

The calls for a such a register were, however, turned down by ministers and other politicians who claimed that it would raise practical as well as civil liberties issues.

A documentary about the murder was broadcast on BBC1 at 10.35pm on 8 April 2008. Another TV documentary, as part of ITV's Real Crime series documented Bowman's killing, with interviews, the history of the case and reconstructions included. It was shown on 29 June 2009.

Mark Dixie

Mark Philip Dixie (born 24 September 1970) was born in Streatham. When he was 18 months old, his parents separated. When he was 8, his mother remarried; she had two sons by her new husband. Dixie took his stepfather's surname, McDonald.

Dixie used cannabis from age 14, and later used cocaine and ecstasy.

Dixie's criminal record begins in 1986. Between then and 1990, he was found guilty of robbery, burglary, assaulting a police officer, indecent assault, indecent exposure and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Dixie lived in Australia from January 1993 until he was deported back to the UK in April 1999 after being fined for indecent exposure. He lived in London until moving to Spain in 2002. He moved back to England in 2003.

Dixie later started work as a chef at the Ye Old Six Bells in Horley, Surrey. He was arrested on 10 June 2006 in nearby Crawley, West Sussex, after being involved in a fight while watching an England vs Trinidad and Tobago World Cup football match. His DNA was taken and matched with that of Bowman's killer.

Dixie denied the murder. As part of his defence he claimed he had spent the night drinking and taking drugs, and had gone out to buy more cocaine. He claimed to have come across the body of Bowman, murdered, he said, by a third party, and had sex with her after she was killed.

Dixie's DNA matches that left at a sexual assault in 2001, where it is believed he masturbated in front of a woman in a telephone booth.

In October 2006, Dixie's DNA was sent to Western Australia to be tested against that of the DNA evidence in the Claremont serial killer case between 1996 and 1997, as it is believed he was in the area at the time of the killings, and may have committed them. At his trial for the murder of Bowman, an unnamed Thai woman gave evidence that Dixie had stabbed and raped her in Australia in June 1998 in Subiaco, Western Australia whilst Dixie was burgling her house; Dixie has yet to be formally charged with this attack, though a DNA sample from the woman's underwear has been matched to him.

Memorial

On 11 September 2008, a memorial was held to mark what would have been Sally Anne's 21st birthday. Balloons were released in Central Croydon outside Primark along North End.

Wikipedia.org

Model's killer loses appeal bid

BBC.co.uk

February 3, 2009

The man jailed for life for the murder of teenage model Sally Anne Bowman has lost a bid to challenge his conviction.

Pub chef Mark Dixie, 38, was given a minimum term of 34 years for the killing, in Croydon, south London.

Ms Bowman's near-naked body was found in the driveway of her home in 2005. Dixie had stabbed her repeatedly before having sex with her body.

The panel of three Court of Appeal judges said Dixie's application to appeal was "entirely without merit".

Dixie was out celebrating his 35th birthday on the night he killed the 18-year-old in an alcohol and cocaine-fuelled attack.

Dixie, who had a string of sex convictions in Britain and Australia - where he lived for six years - had denied the murder.

Sally Anne's mother Linda and sister Nicole Chiddy were in court to hear the ruling by Lord Justice Burnton, Mr Justice Treacy and Mrs Justice Slade.

Afterwards, Ms Chiddy, 26, said the family had been fearful of a technicality leading to Dixie's release.

She said: "This is the best thing that could have happened.

"He should accept what he did and that he got what he deserved. I hope this is the final chapter and he will rot in hell."

Man gets life for model's murder

BBC.co.uk

February 26, 2008

Dixie shook his head before being taken down to the cells.

Her mother, Linda, tried to console her daughters, while Miss Bowman's boyfriend Lewis Sproston wept with friends.

Speaking after the verdict, she said: "My heart will never mend not even over time.

"I cannot understand why my baby girl was taken from me in such a brutal and depraved way.

"I cannot understand why he killed her."

Judge Gerald Gordon told Dixie his conduct was unspeakable.

'Awful and repulsive'

"What you did that night was so awful and repulsive that I do not propose to repeat it," he said.

"Your consequent conduct shows you had not the slightest remorse for what you had done."

On the day of the murder, Dixie had spent a drug and drink-filled day celebrating his 35th birthday. He went on the prowl later that night.

He attacked a woman motorist whose mobile phone was stolen before a taxi driver came to her aid.

Later, at about 0430 GMT, neighbours heard Miss Bowman's screams.

Dixie stabbed her repeatedly before having sex with her body.

Police said Dixie enjoyed hearing details of his crimes being re-told in court by his victims.

Det Supt Stuart Cundy said: "Dixie has made his victims re-live horrific ordeals. He made Sally Anne's family sit through horrific evidence."

At one point during the evidence Miss Bowman's mother fled the court in tears.

Dixie had a string of previous convictions for sex offences.

Detectives believe he may have targeted other women while living in Australia. He lived there from 1993 to 1999 working as a cook in bars and restaurants.

He was deported to England from Western Australia after jumping out of a bush naked and making lewd suggestions to a woman jogger.

Det Supt Cundy said: "I am still convinced he has done something somewhere in Australia."

It was only after British police made inquiries following Dixie's arrest during a minor scuffle in a pub in Surrey that his DNA was matched to an unsolved attempted murder and rape of a student in Perth.

Mr Cundy said: "If there was a DNA register we would have known who killed Sally Anne that day."

Police appealed for any victims to come forward so they can receive counselling.

Man 'had sex with victim's body'

BBC.co.uk

February 5, 2008

A man accused of murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman confessed to having sex with her after she was killed, a court has been told.

Miss Bowman, 18, was repeatedly stabbed and bitten outside her home in Croydon, south London, in September 2005.

Chef Mark Dixie, 37, of no fixed address, denies murdering Miss Bowman.

Prosecutor Brian Altman said: "The defendant confesses that he had sex with Sally Anne and that he had sex with her after her death."

The court heard Mr Dixie had said he had been drinking, took drugs and had "taken advantage of the situation".

Mr Altman said: "That astonishingly is his defence. It is born out of desperation."

'Gruesome discovery'

Miss Bowman had been driven home after a night out in Croydon Town Centre by her boyfriend Lewis Sproston at about 0400 BST, the court was told.

The couple began to argue as they sat in the car outside Miss Bowman's house with each accusing the other of seeing other people, Mr Altman added.

She had tried to stop Mr Sproston driving off by sitting on the bonnet of the car, but as he left he had seen Sally Anne walking into her drive.

Mr Altman said Mr Sproston believed someone had been watching them and at one stage had "looked angrily" into the car.

Neighbours heard screams at about 0420 BST but it was not until over two hours later that the "gruesome discovery" of the model's body was made.

The defendant's DNA was found on Miss Bowman's body, his bloody fingerprint on her shoe and his bite marks on her cheek, neck and breast, the jury was told.

Mr Altman said Mr Dixie, a father of three and a "recreational drug user", had a history of sexual violence.

The court was told that, at the age of 17, he indecently assaulted a female Jehovah's Witness in London, and a match to his DNA was found by police investigating the rape and stabbing of a student in Perth, Western Australia.

He had been celebrating his 35th birthday drinking and taking cocaine in a pub on the night Miss Bowman died, the court heard.