Villagers remember Sara ten years on
EVER since residents in Earsdon woke on April 21, 2000, to a scene more accustomed to the television or big screen, they have been trying to come to terms with what happened on their doorstep.
The quiet village was swarming with police officers as the biggest murder hunt ever seen in North Tyneside was getting under way.
Finnish student Sara Cameron had been murdered just yards from her home in Garden Terrace after enjoying a night out with friends as she prepared to head to the Olympics in Australia.
The 23-year-old's night of joy ended when Michael Robinson followed her from Shiremoor Metro station, bundling her in the bushes where he tried to rape her then strangled her.
In the ten years since, emotions and residents in the village may have changed – but the memory of the popular student will live on.
In the days after Sara's murder, there was a great outpouring of grief as friends and family visited Earsdon to pay their respects, while villagers also remembered 'one of their own'.
And such was the grief, residents planted a red rhododendron bush, with its own plaque, in memory of Sara.
But once the police and press had left the village, residents say they struggled to cope with what had happened.
Joan Middlemiss, who was chairperson of Friends of Earsdon at the time, said: "I found the village afterwards was very quiet for quite a while.
"People were in shock – there wasn't the people walking around for weeks."
Chris Farrance added: "It had a huge impact on the village and people still talk about it.
"I felt for a long time like there was a weight on my head.
"Sara will never be forgotten."
Gail Stoneman, who lived in the flat below Sara, admits she found it extremely tough after the murder.
"My grandchildren used to play in the field (where Sara was found) but it took them a while before they went in there again," she said.
"I did eventually go back into the field with the boys but it was hard at the beginning.
"I felt guilty playing in the field when that had happened.
"It was eerie in the village afterwards."
Gail has many fond memories of Sara and her flatmate, how they used to come down for meals, play with her grandchildren and always stop and chat.
"Sara was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Gail.
"She was a really nice girl. She had her whole life ahead of her.
"She was very pleasant, very fit, very pretty.
"You always used to see her power walking.
"I used to give them their tea whenever they came downstairs and could smell something cooking.
"They brought a bit of youth to my life.
"The pair of them were lovely, she never had a bad bone in her body.
"Sara always had time for my grandchildren whenever she saw them."
It was only when Gail returned from work on April 21 that she found out what had happened, and still remembers it as if it was yesterday.
"I couldn't get into my flat after work for all the police," she said. "My husband was in a state, it was just like something off the television, something you don't expect to see happen here.
"I can't believe it's ten years; I can remember it as if it was yesterday.
"It did take a long time to recover."
In the months and years after Sara's murder, services were held at her memorial and at the village church but more recently they have become more private affairs.
Flowers are left at the memorial in Earsdon every April 21, and candles are lit in the parish church each Christmas and Easter, but residents now remember Sara on their own on each anniversary.
Joan said: "People now remember Sara in their own way. She was remembered at the church service last Sunday, with candles being lit."
Villagers decided on the red rhododendron bush in memory of Sara, as they wanted something that would last, would continue to grow, and was a vibrant colour.
Chris still keeps in contact with Sara's father Roy, sending him Christmas and Easter cards.
He had been a regular visitor at her home during the appeal to catch Sara's killer, and visited during the court case.
She said: "He said he isn't coming back here any more. It is just too tough for him and you can understand that.
"The court case brought a lot of closure for the village and for Roy."
Sara would have been celebrating her 34th birthday in July, but instead friends and family are left to wonder what might have been as the tenth anniversary of her death passes.
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SARA Cameron's life was full of promise and potential before it was taken from her.
The extremely popular student was on the verge of taking up her dream job working at the Sydney Olympics, with the sports mad 23-year-old even buying her bus ticket to London, a journey she should have taken the day after her brutal murder.
Born in Helsinki on July 3, 1976, Sara was the only child to English father Roy and Finnish mother Sirpa.
Fluent in five languages – Finnish, English, Swedish, German and French – Sara showed early talent as an athlete, representing Finland in the hurdles at junior level until an injury brought her career to a premature end.
In 1996 she travelled with a friend to Atlanta to work as a volunteer helper at the Olympic Games – and four years later she was offered a paid placement by the Olympic Committee, work she was never to take up.
Sara decided to pursue a sports management degree course with the University of Northumbria.
Her father Roy who collected Sara's degree in July, 2001 after the university decided to award it to her posthumously.
To help finance her studies, Sara worked part-time as an instructor at Rye Hill Gym and Bodyzone in Newcastle. She also did bar work at Deep and the Rex Hotel in Whitley Bay, where she was bubbly, lively and nicknamed "dancing queen" by colleagues for her love of music.
She decided to spend her last night in the north east celebrating with friends in Newcastle before heading to London and then Australia.
But instead of travelling south to meet her father, it was Roy who travelled north to meet the detectives investigating his daughter's murder that tragic Easter.
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SARA Cameron had spent the evening of Thursday, April 20, 2000, in Newcastle city centre with friends from Ryehill Gym.
After several weeks of waiting, the Sydney organising committee had offered her the paid position of resident centre supervisor at the 2000 Olympics.
During her leaving party, they visited a few pubs in Newcastle before Sara headed for Monument Metro station at 11.25pm, where she got on the Metro at 11.35pm, arriving in Shiremoor at 11.53pm.
Following the discovery of her body at 9.30am the following day – which was Good Friday – police launched the biggest murder hunt ever seen in North Tyneside.
Detectives recovered DNA from the scene and a number of Sara's belongings in nearby woodland known as the Den.
Over the first three years of the investigation, all 3,958 houses in Shiremoor, Earsdon and Wellfield area were visited, with more than 8,400 people questioned.
More than 5,000 men gave their DNA as part of the investigation while thousands of calls were received by the investigating team.
The News Guardian offered a 3,000 reward to help catch the killer, while Sara's father Roy made countless visits to the north east to keep the case in people's minds.
• MURDERER Michael Robinson spent four years carrying on with life as normal before he was caught for the murder of Sara Cameron.
The former soldier was only arrested after getting into a dispute with a neighbour in Waterville Road, North Shields, three years later, and a DNA swab was taken.
Police eventually caught up with him at an address in Bay View Road, Newhaven, East Sussex, in February, 2004.
During the case at Newcastle Crown Court, the court heard how Robinson had sat just 12 feet away from Sara on the Metro, following her off at Shiremoor and then on the walk home to Earsdon.
He then bundled her into the bushes, stripped her naked, hit her around the face, before trying to rape her and then strangling her.
After committing the murder, Robinson collected all Sara's items and ran across a nearby field into an area in Wellfield known as The Den, where he tried to burn some of the clothes.
He left her trousers on a footpath near Otterburn Avenue, and her jacket in a hedge at rundown Murton Steads Farm, where he took police four years later to recover the item.
Robinson burnt his clothes at the incinerator at Percy Main the following day, and was missing from work as a bus driver for three days.
While in custody, Robinson told a psychiatrist that he fantasised about rape.
Robinson, who is now 36, was sentenced to life in prison, serving a minimum of just over 17 years before he would be considered for parole, although he would spend "considerably longer" in prison.
He was also placed on the sex offender's register for life.
Sentencing Robinson in 2004, Mr Justice Henriques said: "The last few minutes of Sara's life must have been terrifying, painful and humiliating.
"The compelling evidence before me shows you are a very dangerous man who may well remain dangerous.
"It is clear to me that you will remain a risk to women."
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