Crime Desk

A man who killed his girlfriend and then evaded British justice for 15 years after fleeing the UK, has finally been brought to account for his crime after being convicted of murder at the Old Bailey, and sentenced to life today.

The jury took just three hours to return a guilty verdict on Miguel Da Silva, 40, (28.12.69) - a Portuguese national of no fixed abode - for the killing of Susan Joyce Martin back in 1994.

Da Silva killed Susan, who was aged 44 at the time of her death and was the mother of two children, at her flat in Aldridge Road Villas, Notting Hill, on 24 September 1994. A post-mortem at the time gave cause of death as strangulation.

The day after the killing, on Sunday, 25 September, 1994, Da Silva walked into Paddington Green Police station with blood on his hand and confessed that he had "had a fight with Suzie" and that he had "beat her up".

Da Silva was arrested and remanded to a secure medical facility at what is now the New Ealing Hospital in west London. He was charged with murder, but while awaiting trial, Da Silva managed to scale a high wall and escape on 17 March 2024 after patients were evacuated due to a fire alarm alert.

However, the Metropolitan Police never gave up in their attempt to bring Da Silva to justice, and after a case review he was subsequently traced to Spain. He was extradited back to the UK earlier this year, in March 2010, and arrested and charged with murder.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, of the MPS' Homicide and Serious Crime Command (HSCC) based at Belgravia, who led the investigation, said: "On the September 25 1994, Miguel Da Silva needlessly and callously took the life of Susan Martin. Following his arrest and charge, he escaped from hospital and had been on the run from the UK for fifteen years until we tracked him down to Spain. Sarah, Susan's daughter, bravely articulated in her 'impact statement' to court how the death of her mother has devastated the family.

"I pay tribute to the family's courage and sincerely hope that the conviction today 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."

Sarah Martin, daughter of Susan Martin, said: "I have been in limbo for the past sixteen 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."

Sarah paid tribute to Susan, saying: "She was the best Mum a child could wish for. She was brilliant in every way."

She stressed that the murder had a devastating effect on the wider family, her uncles - Susan's brothers - Peter, John, Steven and Tommy Dutton - and also her brother Thomas, who was seventeen at the time of Susan's death.