Double murderer Mark Brown is "consumed by pure evil", say the families of his victims. 

The 41-year-old refused to attend Hove Crown Court for his sentencing today, where a judge jailed him for 49 years.

Brown murdered 34-year-old Alex Morgan and 33-year-old Leah Ware, both mothers. 

Ms Morgan, a single mother-of-two from Sissinghurst, was reported missing in November 2021 after failing to return from a weekend away.

She was last seen filling her car at a petrol station near her home in Cranbrook, Kent on the morning of November 14.

Leah Ware, a mother-of-three from Hastings, was last seen by a friend in the early hours of May 6, 2021.

She had been in a relationship with Brown after meeting him through an escort website.

The packed court room heard Leah's cousin Gabby Barnard describe Brown as being “consumed by pure evil”.

Her mother Rebecca Martin said in a statement her daughter had “her whole life ahead of her”.

“Who could have thought she would be taken away in such shocking and disturbing circumstances?" she said.

“I am grief stricken. I don’t understand how another human being can be so cruel.

“I have had to sit through his fabrication and lies.

“She lost her life because Mark Brown wanted to satisfy his deprived desires.

“He treated her as a prisoner, then he discarded her when he had had enough of her like she was a piece of dirt."

Brown, of Squirrel Close, St Leonards, will be 90 before he would be eligible for parole.

His Honour Judge Nicholas Hilliard KC said there is every chance he will die in jail.

There were cheers and applause from the victims’ families in the public gallery as he passed sentence.

Brown who claimed he is a “psychopath with a conscience” has ignored pleas from Ms Ware's family to tell them what he did with her body.

“The defendant assessed himself as a psychopath who had done monstrous things," the judge said.

Brown, 41, acted out sick sex fantasies on Ms Ware before killing her and planning to murder Ms Morgan.

He was found guilty last year of killing Ms Ware, 32, and 34-year-old Ms Morgan at a yard he rented at Little Bridge Farm in Westfield, near Hastings.

“Because he thought he had got away with the first murder, he was emboldened to plan the second murder,” the judge said.

“He has not attended court today. This is in keeping with his earlier actions. His conscience is untroubled by what he has done.

“He had a preoccupation with violent, non-consensual sexual activity as can be seen from his internet searches.

“Exactly what happened will never be known but I am satisfied he planned for Alex Morgan never to leave Little Bridge Farm alive.”

Ms Ware was kept in a shipping container at the farm as a sex slave by Brown.

Her mother broke down as she told the court her daughter was forced to live in the container inside a barn Brown rented at the remote site.

Ms Morgan was murdered in the same steel box.

Within days of murdering Ms Ware, Brown started grooming Ms Morgan as her replacement.

He targeted her through an escort website before moving on to social media.

He lured her to her death with promises of a new life.

But she was not completely fooled by Brown’s lies and left a trail of clues for police to follow in case anything happened to her.

Police believe he strangled her before burning her body head first in the metal oil drum.

At least four other women who visited Little Bridge Farm had lucky escapes, the court heard.

Brown worked as a labourer, hotel and festival security guard and car trader.

He kept stolen cars at Little Bridge Farm where he worked on them before selling them.

He has one son with his partner Lisa Clarke who has another two sons from a previous relationship.

Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, described Brown as a selfish man who created a web of confusion, misinformation and lies to cover his crimes.

He told the jury the lack of evidence of how the two women died was not an obstacle to concluding Brown murdered them both.

“He constructed a great edifice of lies, camouflage and distraction designed to conceal when, where and how Leah Ware and Alex Morgan had died,” Mr Atkinson said.

His determined concealment of the means of death concealed his determined, violent action, Mr Atkinson said.