Released Early, Then a Killer: Robert Sabat Jailed for Life for Murdering Ex-Partner Dickiesha Nurse Days After Leaving Prison

A 60-year-old man who stabbed his former partner to death just days after being freed from prison under an early release scheme has been sentenced to life imprisonment, in a case that has renewed scrutiny of how quickly violent offenders are returned to the streets.

Robert Sabat, of Balham, south London, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to murdering Dickiesha Nurse, a 42-year-old mother of two, at her flat in Tulse Hill in October 2025. On Wednesday, the court handed him a life sentence with a minimum term of 17 years before he can be considered for parole.

The killing took place against a timeline that prosecutors and family members have described as deeply disturbing. Sabat had been sentenced on 16 October 2025 to a 12-month jail term for possession of a bladed article and harassment, only to walk free from HMP Wandsworth the following day, 17 October. He had been held on remand since May 2025, meaning his release came after he had served roughly 40% of the sentence rather than the 50% threshold that had previously applied.

That reduction reflected a change in government policy on automatic release dates for certain offenders, introduced the month before Sabat was freed. The reform was subsequently superseded: last week, the Sentencing Act 2026 replaced the earlier approach, and under the new framework some prisoners can now be released after serving as little as a third of their term. The shifting rules have fuelled a broader political debate about whether early release is easing pressure on an overcrowded prison system at an unacceptable cost to public safety.

Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly KC told the court that Sabat and Nurse had been in a relationship and had known one another for many years, as the defendant had been brought up by the victim's father. The connection between the two families added an intimate and painful dimension to the case, with the court hearing how a long history of violent offending preceded the fatal attack.

Just two days after his release, Nurse's children visited her home. When they returned to their own residence, they told their father that someone described as her "friend or cousin" had been at the address. On 22 October, Nurse told a neighbour that Sabat was inside her flat and would not leave. Another neighbour witnessed her in the street shouting, "Get out of my house."

Two days later, a neighbour heard a single scream coming from the victim's home, the court heard. Nurse was captured on CCTV for the last time on 25 October. Her children attempted to visit the following day, but received no answer when they knocked on the door. By 27 October, family members had raised concerns, and paramedics were sent to the property.

When emergency crews entered the flat, they were confronted by Sabat, who was armed with a knife and charged at a paramedic, according to Farrelly. London Ambulance Service staff and relatives withdrew from the property and police were summoned. Armed officers soon forced their way inside and used Tasers to detain the defendant.

Inside, officers found Nurse lying on a bed with a pillow over her face and multiple stab wounds to her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A post-mortem examination later established that she had suffered around eight stab wounds, including injuries to the left side of her face, her neck and her hands — wounds that suggested she had tried desperately to defend herself in her final moments. Police also recovered a knife bearing her blood, a bag marked "HMP valuables" and prison records in Sabat's name, physical traces that linked the defendant directly to both the killing and his recent incarceration.

The court also heard that when Sabat was arrested on suspicion of Nurse's murder, he claimed he had killed before and was planning a "murder spree". He told officers: "I'm a murderer, I don't want to come back out, I wanna go to jail... I've been let out a week. Let me back... I'm happy in there, I've done wrong. I killed before and got away with it. I've murdered three people so far. I'm gonna go on a murder spree." The remarks, described in court, added to the sense of a man who presented an extreme danger to those around him.

In mitigation, Alisdair Williamson KC said Sabat had lived "on the margins" of society, with repeated spells in jail, and had struggled with his mental health, depression and anxiety. The defence's portrayal of a marginalised and psychologically troubled man stood in stark contrast to the picture painted by the prosecution and the victim's family, who emphasised the calculated and relentless nature of the violence.

Nurse's sister, Samantha Carvalho, described Sabat in a victim impact statement as a "menace to society", saying the "heartlessness" of the killing was "impossible to comprehend". Her mother, Claudette McBean, remembered her daughter as kind, loving and the "life and soul of the party" — a tribute that underscored the human loss behind the legal proceedings.

The court heard that Sabat's criminal record stretched back to 1987 and included convictions for burglary, assault, wounding with intent, knife possession and the harassment of a former partner. In 2013, he was made subject to a non-molestation order in relation to a former partner, and in August 2023 he was given a restraining order after being cleared of attempted murder when the complainant — his landlady — failed to attend court. The pattern of offences against women, and the repeated use of weapons, provided a background that prosecutors argued should have flagged him as a high-risk individual long before the killing.

The case has inevitably raised questions about the decision-making that allowed a man with such a history to leave prison after serving less than half of a sentence imposed for knife possession and harassment, and to do so in an era when release rules were being actively loosened. Campaigners against domestic violence have long warned that the period immediately after a prisoner's release is one of the most dangerous for victims of stalking and abuse, particularly when a restraining order or non-molestation order is already in place. In Sabat's case, the interval between his release and the murder was measured not in months, but in days.

Legal analysts note that the Sentencing Act 2026, which now permits some prisoners to be released after serving a third of their sentence, may intensify the debate over whether the justice system is adequately assessing risk before returning offenders to the community. While the government has framed such measures as necessary to address prison capacity, critics argue that cases such as Sabat's expose the potential human cost when early release outpaces robust monitoring, supervision and safeguarding for known victims.

For Nurse's family, the sentence brings a measure of legal closure but no relief from grief. A mother of two whose children unknowingly came close to encountering her killer has been remembered as warm and vivacious, while the man who took her life will spend at least 17 years behind bars — a term that, for her relatives, may never feel proportionate to the loss. The case now stands as a stark example of the risks that can accompany early release, and as a test of whether the system that freed Robert Sabat can credibly claim to protect the public in the future.