Killer's daughter pleads: 'Pay for my UK trip'

Leigh Sabine is believed to have murdered her husband John, whose remains were found last month.

One of the children abandoned in New Zealand by murder accused Leigh Ann Sabine wants help to fund a reunion with relatives she never knew she had.

Jane Sabine, abandoned with four siblings when she was just 3, yesterday launched a Givealittle page to pay for a trip to the UK to meet newly discovered family.

"It is only due to recent tragic media events surrounding my parents in the UK, that family have been made aware of our existence and wish to meet and support me through this time," she said on the fundraising page.

Those events include the revelation her dead mother, Leigh Ann Sabine, is suspected of the 1997 murder of her husband, John Henry Sabine.

It was only after Leigh Sabine died of brain cancer this month that the body of her husband was found in the garden of her council flat in Pontypridd, South Wales.

A post mortem examination revealed he died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Police believe his wife killed him and then kept his body hidden in her flat for 18 years. They have launched an investigation into what they have described as "the perfect murder".

Leigh Sabine told neighbours she grew up in New Zealand and had escaped her violent husband.

She told others she had miscarried children, when in reality she dumped five of them in a New Zealand orphanage before pursuing a career as a nightclub singer.

Last week her son Steve said his parents abandoned him at the age of 6 or 7 before returning 17 years later in 1985.

Shortly after that reunion his parents again left him, his brother Martin and three sisters, Jane, Susan and Lee-Ann. The family only heard of their parents' fate again last week when police contacted them in New Zealand.

Steve Sabine was "overwhelmed" by the historic murder allegation but told British media: "If anyone was going to do it, she was going to do it."

Through the Givealittle page Jane Sabine said in the past she and authorities in New Zealand and the UK had searched unsuccessfully for any known family.

It wasn't until details were revealed in the media that family members made contact.

"All I have ever wanted is to feel connected and know my family, I knew there must have been some out there and I've held that hope for a lifetime," she said.

"They seem like lovely people and they themselves never knew we existed."

She aimed to raise $6000 for return flights to Wales and two weeks' accommodation.

"This is something I have spent a lifetime dreaming about and I hope with the generosity of some amazing people it may be achievable," she said.