Man Guilty Of Hannah Foster Murder

A former sandwich delivery driver has been jailed for life, for the rape, murder, false imprisonment and kidnap of 17-year-old Hannah Foster.

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, a 41-year-old father of two, was found guilty yesterday at Wincester Crown Court, and ordered to spend at least 24 years in prison for the brutal crimes.

Sentencing him, Judge Mr Justice Keith said his crime was aggravated by "Hannah's vulnerability as a young slip of a girl, the terrible and appalling ordeal which Hannah must have gone through before you killed her, the wanton way you disposed of her body and the unimaginable grief of which you subjected the family".

Hannah Foster disappeared on 14 March 2003 following a night out with friends.

She was found strangled two days later in Allington Lane in West End, near Southampton.

Her father Trevor Foster, called Kohli a "cold, calculating and ruthless man".

He added: "Today we are feeling an overwhelming sense of relief at the verdict in this trial.

"We have long realised that Kohli is cold, calculating and totally ruthless man and has destroyed so many people's life without a second thought."

During the trial, the jury heard Kohli abducted Hannah as she walked down the street just yards from her home in Southampton. Terrified, she dialled 999 so the operator could hear her conversation with 40-year-old Maninder Pal Singh Kohli. However, the call was terminated when she did not speak.

Four days after the killing, Kohli fled to his native India. The conviction comes almost six years after the teenagers death. After years of campaigning by Hannah's parents Hilary and Trevor Foster, Kohli was finally extradited back to Britain last year to stand trial.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by Hannah's aunt Gill Lewis, Hannah's mother Hilary said she would feel guilt for the rest of her life that she was not there to protect her daughter when she was murdered.

She said of her daughter's murderer: "Kohli ripped out my heart and stamped on it."

Speaking outside court, Mr Foster said in a statement: "We have done everything we can in pursuit of justice for Hannah.

"However, we cannot accept and never will be able to accept, how a complete stranger can abduct, rape and murder your teenage daughter, still a child in the eyes of the law, and yet not end his days in prison."

(JM)