David Smith was born in 1956 in Hampton, Middlesex, England. He worked primarily as a lorry driver and lived with his mother in Markhole Close, Hampton, following the breakdown of his marriage. At a height of six feet (1.83 m), weighing 18 stone (about 250 pounds), and wearing size 14 shoes, Smith earned the workplace nicknames “Lurch” and “The Honey Monster.” Despite his ordinary working-class background, Smith harbored violent sexual tendencies that would escalate over decades into serial-level crimes.

Smith’s criminal record began when he was just 18 years old, in 1974, when he raped a young mother at knifepoint in front of her two children. He was convicted in 1976 and sentenced to four years in prison. Upon his release, he reoffended repeatedly — locking another woman inside his vehicle as an unlicensed taxi driver, for which he was convicted of unlawful imprisonment and received a suspended sentence. In another instance, he was accused of attempting to rape and stab a sex worker in a hotel, but the case collapsed when the victim declined to testify.

Smith was also known for voyeuristic behavior, often hiding in woodland areas to watch couples engage in sexual acts. He reportedly had a disturbing obsession with control and degradation, frequently targeting vulnerable women. Despite his criminal record, Smith managed to operate his own escort agency, charging clients £250 per session and taking a cut of the sex workers’ earnings — a dark irony given his history of violence against women.

Those who knew him described him as boastful, misogynistic, and volatile, capable of sudden rage. His size and martial arts training made him physically imposing, and he often used his strength to intimidate and overpower his victims. Despite his criminal background, he lived a seemingly quiet life with his mother until his arrest for murder — but by then, he had already left a trail of violence across England.

On August 1991, 33-year-old Sarah Crump, a psychiatric nurse and part-time sex worker, was found brutally murdered in her Southall home on Lady Margaret Road in West London. Her body showed extensive stab wounds and postmortem mutilation described by investigators as “dreadful.” The pattern of cuts matched the surgical scars of another woman who had previously rejected Smith — evidence prosecutors later cited as psychological symbolism in his attacks.

Smith was quickly arrested and put on trial in 1993. He admitted having paid Crump for sex but denied killing her, claiming he left her unharmed. During the trial, his defense argued that police had suppressed key evidence, including unidentified fingerprints found on Crump’s door handle and furniture. Due to this uncertainty, Smith was acquitted by an Old Bailey jury. However, Crump’s mother remained adamant that Smith was guilty, warning, “He will kill again.” Police later stated that the case was closed and that no other suspect was being sought — a statement that would haunt authorities six years later.

On April 25, 1999, 21-year-old Amanda Walker, a sex worker from Paddington, disappeared after being picked up by Smith in the early morning hours. Witnesses saw her entering his vehicle near Paddington Station. Earlier that night, Smith had attended an “adult” party and, according to his own admission, had left “feeling randy” and looking for “a bit of fun.”

Walker’s bloodstained clothing was discovered later that day near Smith’s home in Hanworth, but her body was missing. Six weeks later, her decomposed body was found in the Royal Horticultural Society gardens in Wisley, Surrey. Due to advanced decomposition, the cause of death could not be determined, but the body showed extensive mutilation consistent with Crump’s earlier murder.

Police traced blood on Walker’s clothing to Smith through a DNA match. He was arrested before Walker’s body was found, and while imprisoned, he allegedly boasted to a fellow inmate about murdering and mutilating her. At trial, Smith repeated his previous defense — claiming he met Walker for sex but left her alive. He explained the blood as an accident, claiming he had a nosebleed after tripping on the pavement earlier that night. The jury rejected his account, finding him guilty of rape and murder.

On conviction, the presiding judge described Smith as “extremely dangerous to women” and noted his complete lack of remorse. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999.

After Smith’s 1999 conviction, police launched a nationwide review under Operation Enigma, which examined unsolved murders of sex workers across Britain. Smith was suspected in several other cases, including the murders of Linda Donaldson and Maria Requena, both killed in the late 1980s near Leigh, Greater Manchester — crimes attributed to a possible serial killer dubbed the “East Lancs Ripper.” Investigators took casts of Smith’s unusually large feet to compare with footprints from those crime scenes.

For years, Smith could not be retried for Crump’s murder because of the UK’s double jeopardy laws. However, the Criminal Justice Act 2003 changed that, allowing retrials when new and compelling evidence emerged. In 2021, the Director of Public Prosecutions approved reopening the Crump case. The Court of Appeal quashed his 1993 acquittal in 2022, clearing the way for a historic retrial.

At his 2023 retrial at the Inner London Crown Court, prosecutors introduced new forensic evidence proving that the fingerprints once believed to belong to another person were actually from the apartment’s previous tenant — invalidating the original defense argument. Jurors also heard testimony that Smith had bragged to a fellow inmate about “getting away with it.” Under updated legal provisions, the court permitted “bad character evidence,” allowing the jury to learn about his previous rape and murder convictions.

On May 2023, after less than three hours of deliberation, David Smith was found guilty of the murder of Sarah Crump. He received a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years before eligibility for parole. His conviction marked one of the most notable uses of the UK’s revised double jeopardy laws.