A SEXUAL predator who raped and murdered 17-year-old Hannah Foster was today sentenced to life in prison after four years on the run.

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, 40, a sandwich delivery van driver, snatched Hannah as she walked home in 2003.

He fled to India after the attack and even confessed to the killing on local television.

In an unprecedented move he was extradited back to Britain to stand trial but pleaded not guilty and his lawyers successfully argued the jury should not hear the TV confession.

After more than £1million was spent on the murder hunt, extradition process and a trial, Kohli was finally convicted of murder today at Winchester crown court. He will serve a minimum of 24 years.

The verdict was greeted with cries of joy by Hannah's family who had waited five years for justice and hugged each other in the public gallery.

Kohli had tried every legal trick available to first dodge extradition and then attempt to cast the blame on innocent people even though police had overwhelming DNA evidence of his guilt.

In his filmed confession to an Indian television station in July 2004, Kohli had admitted: "I abducted, raped and killed Hannah Foster. I want to unburden myself and tell the truth[about] what happened that night.

"I was totally drunk that night. I strangled her and killed her."

Kohli said he had only seen Hannah on the night of the murder and was not stalking her. He claimed that he was confessing "because I am already too tired to run here and there".

He said that he had not informed his brothers - who were both arrested and charged with aiding an offender and passport forgery -of the enormity of the crime that he committed. But within a month Kohli had retracted the statement.But police and diplomats fought to ensure he would be the first Indian national to be extradited from India to face trial in this country,

Hannah, described as a beautiful and intelligent girl, had been out for the night in the Portswioiod area of Southampton with her then school friend Helen Wilkinson when she disappeared.

Kohli was prowling the area in his sandwich van and snatched Hannah from the street moments later when she was just a few hundred yards from her home.

Hannah made a desparate 999 call from Kohli's van but she was disconnected because she could not speak directly to the operator.

During the six-week trial, the jury heard a distressing recording of the 999 call Hannah made in the moments after she was abducted.

The enhanced conversation could be clearly heard as Kohli told Hannah in a heavily-accented voice "I want to f " before telling her to keep her head down as his van travelled out of Southampton.

On the tape, a clearly very frightened Hannah is heard to say as she saw Grosvenor Road, where she lived: "That's my, my road ... that was where I live."

Mr Justice Keith would not allow the prosecution to tell the jury that it thought Kohli used the words that he wanted to have sex with her for fear of influencing the jury, but the prosecution and a voice expert maintained that is what he said.

Hannah's fully-clothed body was found in brambles off Allington Lane, West End, after it was spotted by a 14-year-old boy from his mother's car.

Two days after the murder Kohli boarded a flight from Heathrow to India, where he would spend 16 months on the run, even marrying another woman before he was arrested.

In court Kohli made ludicrous claims that he was abducted by a work colleague James Dennis and unnamed others and forced to have sex with Hannah while tied up because he owed money to Mr Dennis.

Hannah, who was known for her beaming smile and caring nature, was tipped to be a great future academic success having already excelled at her GCSEs with 11 A grades.

With a wide range of interests and abilities, Hannah had a full spectrum of choices ahead of her: she was praised at school and college for her success in sciences and humanities but her heart was set on studying medicine at university.

Hannah wanted to be like her mother Hilary, a cardiac nurse, and to prove to her parents that she had what it took to become a doctor.

EXTRACTS FROM THE VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT

EXTRACTS from the victim impact statement given by Hannah Foster's mother Hilary: "When Trevor [Hannah's father] and I saw Hannah in the mortuary, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"The cold, bruised and battered body certainly looked like Hannah but where was the sparkle in her eyes, the radiant smile, the warmth and tenderness of her touch?

"But there was no mistake; this lifeless form was Hannah, our first born daughter: dead aged 17. Her life tragically cut short by the wilful actions of a cruel stranger who took it upon himself to abduct, rape and then murder my beloved Hannah, an innocent girl who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I felt numb, paralysed by grief and pain. Why Hannah? She had so much to live for; so much unfulfilled promise, so many talents, so much humanity and compassion to share.

"When a mother gives birth she has an immediate, instinctive need to nurture and protect her child. I would give anything to change places with Hannah, to take away the terror and pain she suffered that night.

"For the rest of my life I will feel the guilt that I wasn't there when she needed me most. She died terrified and alone with an evil stranger. I feel as though Kohli has ripped out my heart and stamped on it."

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