A new probe in Australia reveals cops stopped and questioned Mark Dixie over a sex attack six years before Sally Anne’s murder – but let him loose when his victim could not positively ID him
The mum of slain model Sally Anne Bowman has blasted missed opportunities to snare her killer as a new sepia-tinted image reveals how he slipped through the net. Speaking as the 20th anniversary of her daughter’s death approaches, Linda Bowman, 62, said Mark Dixie should never have been free to carry out the brutal 2005 murder.
It comes as a fresh probe in Australia showed serial sex predator Dixie pictured by cops in Australia just moments after allegedly attacking a woman in Victoria Park, near Perth, in 1997. But despite the image appearing in a local paper, he was never prosecuted because the victim was not able to positively ID him. The former pub chef – who emigrated to Australia in 1993 – was eventually deported in 1999 for stripping and trying to rape a woman jogger.
READ MORE: Sally Anne Bowman’s mum wrote to killer TWICE in prison – but coward refused to respond
When Dixie arrived back in the UK there was nothing to alert cops that he was a serial sex offender linked to a string of offences Down Under. And six years later he murdered and raped Sally Anne, 18, outside her home in Croydon, South London, in September 2005.
Now, in an exclusive interview with the Mirror, Linda said Dixie had been placed on a plane without any warning over his offending. She said: “He is one of Britain’s most depraved sex offenders. The police in Australia didn’t care. They banged him back on a plane to let the UK deal with him even though he’s a sex offender.
“They should’ve informed the British police and he should have been arrested at the gate as he landed. Instead he was free to kill my daughter. If they had done their jobs my daughter would still be alive. He would have gone to prison in Australia and he would have been a convicted sex offender. Sally Anne died because the police did not do enough to stop him. I want to confront them, to tell them how their mistakes cost Sally Anne her life.”
A major new probe in Australia by the West Australian newspaper has unearthed missed opportunities to catch him before he was deported back to the UK. For the first time it can be revealed he was suspected of carrying out a sex attack in Como, near Perth, in March 1997 – just weeks after he was pictured by cops.
In that incident, a woman was grabbed by a man who dragged her towards a construction site. She was thrown to the ground but managed to flee. Dixie was never formally questioned over the attack. Meanwhile it has also emerged an identikit image of a suspect alleged to have attacked a Thai student, 20, was created in 1998.
She was stabbed eight times by a hooded beast who broke into her home in Leederville, Perth. The knifeman, convinced she was dying, then raped her. But despite the identikit image bearing striking similarities to Dixie, he was never traced.
The victim’s underwear was analysed in London in 2007 and a DNA match with Dixie was found. She gave evidence against Dixie during his murder trial. But it has now emerged that in the days after the attack in Leederville, detectives failed to knock on Dixie’s door – despite him living just 700m away.
Linda said: “Why didn’t they find him? Why did they not pursue him? Why did they not keep on? If they’d tried harder my daughter would still be alive. It’s awful to see his face like that.”
Sally Anne was killed in a sex attack on her driveway at 4am after returning home from a night out in Croydon, South London, to celebrate her 18th birthday. Dixie stabbed her seven times outside her flat before returning to have sex with her as she lay dead or dying. He then dumped her body next to a skip.
At his trial he claimed he found her dying or dead in the street – but claimed he sexually assaulted her corpse. The pub chef was arrested a year later after his DNA, taken following a bar brawl, matched samples on Sally Anne’s body. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 34 years in 2008.
For 20 years Linda says she has been haunted by her daughter’s final moments and says she lives every day with the trauma of her death. It triggered Linda’s fibromyalgia, a condition that causes widespread pain and extreme tiredness.
She said: “The trauma caused me to develop fibromyalgia and I’ve been so ill with it, I’ve been so unwell. The whole body goes into shock, every bone in your body aches, it affects everything in your body. That’s what Sally Anne’s murder did to me. It doesn’t get any easier. When people say it does, they’re wrong. Because everyday is another day she’s not with us.
“And every day I think about what she might look like now? I know she would’ve taken off the modelling career, but would she have done it in the way she wanted? She wanted the dream job, she wanted the house, the relationship, the children, she wanted the fairytale. Sometimes I’m driving in the car and her favourite song will come on the radio. I pull the car over and I break down in tears. It doesn’t matter where I am. That’s what happens.”
She added: “It’s 20 years this year since she was killed, it’s so hard. Twenty years since we lost her, it’s a devastating milestone. And then you think about how much longer he’s got left in there, we’re hoping life is life so with him. He’ll be 74 before he can be released. But that will never happen, he’s too dangerous.”
In 2017 Dixie was given two more life sentences after confessing to more sex attacks – one when he was 16. His earliest release date was put back from 2040 to 2045, meaning he will be 74 before he ever walks free. He was jailed for at least 34 years in 2008 for the murder of model Sally Anne. But the dad-of-three, now 54, confessed to more attacks in 40 interviews in 2015.
He carried out his first attack aged 16 in 1987. He later raped an office worker, 44, in her car then tied her up before starting a fire and fleeing. She managed to escape. In 2002 he fractured a woman’s skull by battering her with a chef’s knife sharpener, and sexually assaulted her.
Dixie also raped three women in Spain in 2003. Dutch hotel receptionist Romano van der Dussen was wrongly jailed for 12 years before his conviction was quashed in 2016 when new DNA evidence emerged. Linda said: “I don’t want to go to my grave while he’s still breathing. I want to know when I go, I want to have peace of mind that he can never hurt another female again.
I live every day terrified that there will be a knock at the door and someone will say he’s escaped from prison, because he will never change.”
Linda has also revealed she wanted to confront “disgusting pervert” Dixie inside maximum-security Frankland Prison and tried to contact him but the monster would not respond.
Linda said: “He wouldn’t see me. I sent him two letters but he won’t reply. I even spoke to the prison governor. I don’t even wanna ask him why he did it because he’s a dirty disgusting pervert. I just want to look him in the eyes so he knows what he’s done, not just to me, but to every single person that knew Sally Anne.
