Eight years ago, Sarah Sands made a choice that would change her family’s life forever. She killed a man, a convicted paedophile who had hurt her sons. Now, for the first time, her three boys are speaking together about the abuse they endured and how they feel about their mother’s actions.
It was a cold autumn night in 2014 when Sarah, her hood pulled over her head, left her east London home with a knife in hand. She walked to Michael Pleasted’s flat, an elderly man who lived nearby. Once inside, she stabbed him eight times in what was later called a “determined and sustained attack.” He bled to death in his home. Pleasted, 77, wasn’t just an old man. He had a dark past and was awaiting trial for sexually abusing young boys, including Sarah’s own children.
At the time of the trial, the names of those boys were kept secret. But now, BBC News can reveal that those boys were Sarah’s sons—Bradley, who was 12, and his younger twin brothers, Alfie and Reece, who were 11 when their mother killed the man who had hurt them.
Bradley waived his right to anonymity last year to tell the world what had happened. Now, his younger brothers have decided to do the same. As young men—now 19 and 20—they remember the day they found out what their mother had done. Sitting next to her, they spoke about what it was like growing up without her. Their mum expressed regret, but her sons were blunt about how they felt.
Bradley recalled his initial reaction to the news: “I thought, hats off. I’m not going to lie.” Alfie admitted that while their mum’s actions didn’t stop the nightmares, it did give them some comfort. “It made us feel safer,” he said. “We didn’t have to walk around the estate worrying that he’d be just around the corner.” Bradley added, “He lived right across the road. I could look out the window and see his house.”
Reece, who was just 11 at the time, said it was “nice knowing that he was dead.” But even then, it didn’t erase the pain. “It didn’t stop the afterthoughts,” he said quietly. “We’d still wake up crying, wondering, ‘Where’s mum?’”
Sarah and her family had moved to their new home in Silvertown a few months before the killing. At first, Pleasted seemed like a kind, lonely old man. He was always outside, sitting near the newsagent’s, chatting with locals and interacting with the kids. “I thought he was a lovely old man,” Sarah now admits. “I cooked for him, kept him company when I could.”
But Pleasted was far from harmless. He offered Bradley a job sorting newspapers, and Sarah was pleased. She had no idea he was grooming her children. It wasn’t long before Pleasted invited all three boys to his flat. Then, one evening, the twins told their mother that Pleasted had sexually assaulted them. A week later, Bradley shared that he, too, had been abused.
Pleasted was arrested and charged, but while awaiting trial, the judge granted him bail and allowed him to return to the estate. Sarah was devastated. She packed up her family and moved them to her mother’s cramped home.
On the night she killed him, Sarah walked to Pleasted’s flat with one thing in mind: she wanted him to plead guilty and save her sons from having to testify. But when she confronted him, Pleasted denied everything, accusing her children of lying. “The whole world froze,” she said. In that moment, she lost control. With the knife already in her hand, she stabbed him.
Hours later, Sarah walked into a police station, still covered in blood, and turned herself in. In court, the judge ruled she hadn’t planned the killing but had lost control. She was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three and a half years in prison, later extended to seven and a half after an appeal argued her sentence was too lenient.
Sarah spent nearly four years behind bars. During that time, her boys, along with their two younger brothers, lived with their grandmother. Bradley recalled how tough those years were. “There were so many of us in one room. No privacy. My nan would call my mum in prison, asking if I could go out to play football, and sometimes she’d say no.”
Alfie added that they missed out on a lot. They only saw their mum once a month during prison visits. “Sometimes, you just want to tell your mum something, but she’s not there,” he said.
Sarah admits how difficult it was to be away from her children. “Before I went in, we were so close, and then suddenly, I wasn’t there anymore. It was awful for them.”
When asked if she feels remorse for killing Pleasted, Sarah’s response was clear: “Absolutely.” But she added, “I’ve always been raised to take responsibility for my actions.”
The court case revealed that Pleasted wasn’t who he seemed. He had changed his name from Robin Moult and had 24 previous convictions for sexual offenses over three decades. Yet, no one in the community or even the local council that housed him knew his history.
Since her release from prison in 2018, Sarah has rebuilt her relationship with her sons. Reece smiled as he remembered her trying to baby them when she got home. “It was nice, but it made you realize all those years we lost.”
Bradley chimed in, “There’s nothing that’s going to break the family bond.” As children, the boys had regretted speaking out about the abuse, thinking that if they had stayed silent, their mother would still be with them. “We would’ve had our mum, gone shopping, gone to the cinema, lived like normal 12-year-olds,” Bradley said.
But now, as young men, they understand the importance of coming forward. “It’s going to be hard, but it does get better,” Reece encouraged other victims. Alfie agreed, “It’s better to talk. If you don’t, it’ll just get worse.”
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