Man jailed for 36 years for 'jigsaw' murder

(PA)

A man who murdered and chopped up his friend before scattering his body parts across two counties was jailed for life today.

Stephen Marshall, 38, was told he would serve a minimum of 36 years in prison, while his girlfriend, Sarah Bush, 21, was jailed for three years and nine months for perverting the course of justice.

The severed remains of Jeffrey Howe, 49, from Southgate, north London, were discovered across Hertfordshire and Leicestershire last year.

He became known as the "jigsaw man" after the series of macabre finds.

Bush was today acquitted of murdering Mr Howe but pleaded guilty to helping to dispose of his body parts and giving false information about his whereabouts when police were investigating his disappearance.

She was sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment for the first offence and to two years and three months for the second one, with the two terms to run concurrently.

Passing sentence at St Albans Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, told Marshall: "(Mr Howe) looked up to you and was scared of you and the evidence is you exploited that."

Mr Howe had let the couple live at his flat when they needed a place to stay and it was during this time, on March 8 or 9 last year, that Marshall stabbed him in the back.

The pair then took over his property, began helping themselves to money from his bank account and sold his belongings.

Mr Justice Cooke told Bush: "You were well aware of what Stephen Marshall had done.

"You took advantage of Mr Howe in life and then after his death you used his money."