Life sentence for cellar murder man

The jury at Manchester Crown Court decided by a majority of 10 to two that Frederick Lawlor, 54, murdered Dorothy Carre, 56, in 1999 by repeatedly stabbing her in the front room of their house in Equitable Street, Rochdale, before burying her in a shallow grave in the cellar.

Despite Mrs Carre's family reporting her missing three times, her body lay undiscovered for eight years, during which time Lawlor was able to abuse a 13-year-old girl.

Today's life sentence will run concurrently with an indeterminate sentence Lawlor is already serving for abusing the 13-year-old. He had offered the girl for sex with other men on beaches in North Wales while he watched and filmed, often joining in.

Jurors - who had not previously been told of Lawlor's paedophile past - had earlier wept as they learnt of the abuse.

He was arrested in March this year after police investigating mother-of-four Mrs Carre's disappearance found the remains of a body under the cellar of the house in Equitable Street, Rochdale.

During the trial, the court heard that a post-mortem examination showed the bones had at least 10 stab wounds to the vertebrae, which a pathologist said would have required "extreme" force to inflict.

Police found the body when they were investigating a missing persons report filed by Mrs Carre's daughter Lynn Edwards in 2006 - but she had reported her mother missing on two previous occasions.

After the first, in 1997, police tracked Mrs Carre to an address in Bacup, Lancashire with Lawlor but she said she did not want any contact with her family. However, there is no record of the second report, filed in 2001, after which police said they were not concerned about Mrs Carre's disappearance because she was not unduly claiming benefits.

During the trial, the court also heard that Lawlor had two previous convictions for physically abusing previous girlfriends - including one attack that bore remarkable similarities to that which killed Mrs Carre. After the verdict the jury was told of three more convictions that Lawlor had for assaulting former partners.