Teacher killer jailed for 26 years

Graham Coutts was told he must serve a minimum of 26 years in jail for the murder of Jane Longhurst.

Coutts, who was obsessed with violent internet pornography, was found guilty on Wednesday following an Old Bailey re-trial.

He was originally jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years, later reduced to 26, after being found guilty of the 2003 murder at Lewes Crown Court.

But the verdict was quashed after the House of Lords ruled that jurors should have been offered the alternative charge of manslaughter.

The jury in the new trial again rejected his claim that she died during consensual sex after hearing how he had been fascinated with the idea of murdering women since the age of 15.

Philip Katz QC, prosecuting, told the court he had been looking at "horrific" images on pornography websites the day before the murder.

Afterwards he repeatedly visited the body, which he kept in a storage unit and regarded as his "trophy", for a "sexual thrill".

Following the first trial, the victim's mother Liz Longhurst, now 76, led a successful campaign to outlaw the viewing of violent and extreme pornography on the internet.

Miss Longhurst's partner, Malcolm Sentance, and her mother sat in the public gallery as Coutts was jailed by Judge Richard Hone.