A man who raped and murdered his ex-fiancee at a luxury hotel in Surrey has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years, as the woman’s family branded him an “evil, controlling, manipulative predator”.
The body of Samantha Mickleburgh, 54, described by her loved ones as their “champagne girl” who lit up every room she walked in, was found at the five-star Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot on April 14 last year.
James Cartwright was unanimously convicted last month, after one afternoon of jury deliberation, of raping and murdering the mother-of-two during their stay at the hotel.
Cartwright, 61, was acquitted of a further charge of controlling and coercive behaviour, but prosecutor Louise Oakley argued that during his and Ms Mickleburgh’s relationship, Cartwright’s conduct was “cruel, repressive and overbearing”.
Sentencing the defendant at Guildford Crown Court on Friday, Mr Justice Murray told him: “Collectively (Ms Mickleburgh’s family) described Samantha’s wonderful qualities as a daughter, as a mother and as a sister – caring, thoughtful, fun, well-organised, generous to a fault and devoted to her family.
“Samantha’s family suffer a grief that those who have not experienced it cannot imagine. It lies beyond words to fully describe.”
Six members of Ms Mickleburgh’s family gave victim impact statements in which they warmly remembered their loved one and addressed Cartwright over his attack.
Tracey Carter, one of Ms Mickleburgh’s sisters, said: “Our family welcomed you into our homes and hearts and you violated that trust and kindness. You spent Christmas and other special occasions with (the family).
“I will never understand why you thought you had the right to do the horrific things that you did to Sam.”
“I wish she had never met you,” Ms Carter continued.
“Did you feel proud of yourself when you lied to my father, saying that Sam had died in her sleep knowing full well the horror that you had put her through?
“Do you take some kind of sadistic enjoyment in your lies? You have caused an indescribable amount of pain and suffering to our family but know this: we are strong and you cannot break us, you cannot take Sam from us.
“We now know that you have a history of controlling behaviour towards women that you have relationships with. We know you would stalk Sam and this made her fear for her safety. I hope you are never free to harm anyone again.
“I believe you are a monster – an evil, controlling, manipulative predator who really thought you were clever enough to get away with murder, my sister’s murder.”
Her other sister, Karen Bishop, called Cartwright a “vile, narcissistic man”.
Ms Mickleburgh’s daughter Jessica told the court how she had just had a little girl, and thought she had “won the lottery in life” when she lost her mother.
“The bonds between mothers, daughters and granddaughters is strong and special,” she said.
“James Cartwright severed those bonds with his own bare hands. He killed my mum, he stole my comfort, he took my safety and my stability, he extinguished the powerful light in my life.
“He destroyed what should have been the most joyous year of my life and replaced that joy with trauma and unanswered questions, and I dare say if I hadn’t had my daughter he would have ended two lives that day.”
She branded him a “coward” who “has shown no acceptance, no accountability or remorse”.
She said she hoped her mum was looking down on them somewhere “in a pair of Jimmy Choos with a glass of bubbly”.
Her brother, Alexander Mickleburgh, said: “At the end of all this I simply want my mum back and yet that will never happen. I have lost out on over 30 years of memories with my mother and I am going to have to go through the rest of my life knowing she was murdered.
“The only good thing to come from this is that he (Cartwright) will never be able to harass or hurt women again physically or emotionally.”
Ms Mickleburgh’s mother, Penelope Strain, called her daughter her “soulmate” who “could light up a room with her personality just by walking in”.
In her statement, read out by the prosecutor, she said to Cartwright: “I have sat through this trial and listened to all your lies.
“This was my daughter who you were supposed to love and could not live without. Now we as a family have to do just that – live to rest of our lives without her.
“You showed no respect for Sam sitting in that room with her, texting other women, sussing out your next victim.”
Her husband and Ms Mickleburgh’s father, Stephen Strain, said in the witness box that the last time he had to give a similar speech was at his younger brother’s funeral, when Ms Mickleburgh came to stand beside him when he struggled to speak.
“I miss her so much,” he said, holding back tears. “There is a big hole in my heart that gets bigger as time goes by. I thought it would get better in time but it doesn’t. I know that this is the new normal but it is unnatural, Sam should have outlived me.
“Sam was my champagne girl and I miss her so much. I always will.”
Ms Mickleburgh, from Axminster in Devon, “honoured” a commitment she had made before she and Cartwright separated to spend his 60th birthday together on April 13 last year, booking a twin room with separate beds and a six-course Michelin star dinner at the Surrey hotel, the court heard.
The judge said that Ms Mickleburgh had made it clear this was the last time she was going to see Cartwright, telling the court: “To one friend she said that the Monday after the stay would be the start of her new life in which you would have no part.”
After the dinner’s second course, Ms Mickleburgh became tired and unwell, with restaurant staff saying she struggled to stand when Cartwright walked her out.
They returned to the room where “at some point” she suffered a skull fracture, and Cartwright raped her and strangled her to death with his hands.
Between killing her and calling an ambulance at about 8.30am the next morning, when he would claim he had discovered Ms Mickleburgh dead beside him in bed, the prosecution said Cartwright placed an engagement ring on her left ring finger to “support this assertion that they had become re-engaged the night before” and “staged the hotel room” to make it look as though they had consensual sex.
Mr Justice Murray said that while he could not say whether Cartwright is a “compulsive or a pathological liar in the clinical sense”, he told a number of lies throughout the trial some which have been admitted and others which have not.
The court heard Cartwright was subject to a conditional caution for harassing a former partner, with Ms Oakley saying there is a “history of controlling and coercive behaviour in terms of his behaviour towards women”.
Martin Rutherford KC, defending, told the court Cartwright had no previous convictions and had recently received a provisional diagnosis of cancer.
Cartwright and Ms Mickleburgh met and got to know each other on a dating app in 2021 after which they lost contact for a while before striking up a friendship and later an intimate relationship the following year.
In 2023, he moved into a property she had bought and got engaged on holiday in Antigua in September that year after which the relationship was said to have deteriorated.
“You had always been a bit obsessive and clingy with her,” the judge said, “but these traits worsened over the following weeks and months to the point where Samantha found your presence suffocating.”
Cartwright, of no fixed address, was jailed for nine years for raping Ms Mickleburgh – a sentence which will run concurrent to his sentence for murder.
