Mother who killed paedophile, 77, reveals she did it because he had abused her 12-year-old son

A mother-of-five who stabbed her neighbour to death with a knife after learning he was a paedophile today revealed her son was one of his victims.

Sarah Sands, 38, attacked Michael Pleasted, 77, in the living room of his east London flat weeks after discovering he had abused young boys. 

During her trial in 2015 – for which she was convicted of manslaughter – it emerged Pleasted had 24 convictions for sex offences over three decades.

At the point of living next door to Sands, he had changed his name, while his crimes had pre-dated the sex offenders register, meaning that few knew about his past. 

Sands received a seven-year prison term and spent almost four years behind bars before she was released.

Now for the first time she revealed her motive and said she did not regret her actions.

Speaking to The Sun, she said: ‘I did what any mother would do, because he did this to my son Bradley, my little boy.

‘I never dreamt I’d be capable. I have no pride in it, but at least I know he can’t hurt anyone else.’ 

In 2014, when Bradley was aged 12, Pleasted had offered the young boy a job in the shop where he volunteered.

Sands said she had no reason not to trust her older neighbour, who she enjoyed chatting to and cooking meals for and thought it would be a good way for her son to earn pocket money.

Just weeks later, she was informed that Pleasted had been accused of molesting two children.  

Her son denied anything had happened to him, but months later in November 2014, the youngster broke down and admitted he had been groomed and abused. 

Bradley, now 19, is waiving his anonymity to speak of his ordeal revealing how he was ‘too embarrassed’ at first and thought he would get in trouble, but was having nightmares the paedophile would come after him again.

Pleasted denied the charges made against him, meaning his young victims would have to go to court to testify against him.

During her trial, Sands told the court she had gone to Pleasted to plead with him to admit his crimes and spare his young accusers from having to go to court.

But when he answered the door, he ignored her request and just ‘smirked’ as he told her the boys were all liars who had ruined his life, she said.

Sands, who had armed herself with a 12-inch kitchen knife before visiting, said she ‘lost control’ and stabbed Pleasted eight times. 

Within hours, Sands handed herself into police, telling an officer: ‘Who houses a f****** paedophile on an estate, like, seriously? He was, like, asking for trouble.’

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, she was cleared of murder but convicted of the lesser offence of manslaughter by reason of loss of control.

Sands lived on the same estate as the victim and occasionally visited his flat to give him some home-cooked food.

She originally thought he was a ‘positive male role model’ for local children and defended him when he was accused of being a ‘paedo’.

But unbeknownst to Sands, Pleasted was a convicted paedophile with a history of child sex attacks when the fresh allegations emerged.

During her case at London’s Old Bailey, it emerged that Pleasted, who had changed his name from Robin Moult so that authorities couldn’t track him, had previous child sex offences dating between 1971 and 1990.

Pleasted first appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court in mid November 2014 charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child under the age of 13.

The Crown Prosecution Service were also considering a charge involving a third boy. Pleasted denied the charges and was due to stand trial on June 1, 2015.

On the night of November 29, 2014, Sands drank two bottles of wine and a small bottle of whisky before arming herself with a knife and making her way to Pleastead’s flat, the court heard.  

She was caught on CCTV going to Mr Pleasted’s third floor flat. Twenty minutes later she left the building carrying a bloodstained knife in her left hand.

Sands returned to her flat and changed out of her bloodstained clothes, having told a neighbour, ‘pretend you never saw me.’

She then took a taxi to see her stepson Paul Penn and tearfully confessed to stabbing Pleasted.

Mr Penn, 27, told the court: ‘We were sitting there chatting away and she came out that she had stabbed him.

‘It was like joking about, I didn’t think it was being serious. She kept saying she had stabbed him. She said when the door opened she went in and stabbed him, nothing else at all.

‘She got the knife out and showed me. It was a kitchen knife, about a foot long, it had a very pink substance on it.’

Pleasted was found dead in the hallway of his flat the next day after Sands handed herself in to the police. 

Sands sobbed in the witness box as she insisted that she did not mean to hurt Pleasted when she went to his flat armed with a knife.

She told jurors she had gone there to plead with him to admit his crimes and spare his young accusers from having to go to court.

Sands said: ‘I was frightened. It was not how it was meant to go. He was meant to listen to me.’ 

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC argued that Sands had ‘decided to take revenge on Mr Pleasted for the hurt and turmoil she believed he had inflicted.’

He added: ‘It is not a defence to a charge of murder to say something along the following lines, “the victim got what he deserved because he was a paedophile”.

‘Just a moment’s thought will confirm what all fair and reasonable people appreciate, namely that members of the public can not be allowed to take the law into their own hands, however appallingly their fellow citizens might be thought to have behaved.’ 

The jury deliberated for three days before clearing her of murder and convicting her of manslaughter. Sentencing was adjourned for reports and will take place in September.

Trial Judge Nicholas Cooke QC told the jury that an inquiry was under way into the decision to bail Pleasted, adding that the jurors were clearly ‘troubled by the background’ of the case. 

The jury were right to clear Sands of murder, police have said.

Speaking after the verdict, DS Perry Benton said: ‘The jury have taken a considerable time to reach the verdict… but eventually reached the right verdict.’

Asked why convicted paedophile Pleasted was on bail after fresh child sex abuse allegations emerged, he said: ‘That is a difficult question. The local officers had conducted a thorough investigation.

‘They had made an arrest and put him through the courts and it was the courts’ decision to release him on bail.’

When pressed on the threat Pleasted posed to the community, the officer added: ‘The police arrested him and charged him, remanding him in custody to go to court as part of the judicial process and it was the courts’ decision to grant him bail.’