Man sentenced after dumping victim's body at Heathrow Airport

A man has been jailed for at least 24 years for murdering a woman whose body was dumped in a suitcase at Heathrow Airport.

Former air steward Youseff Wahid (aged 42) was found guilty in August and remanded to allow the judge to determine the minimum term of a life sentence.

Wahid fled Britain for his native Lebanon the day after the body of Fatima Kama was discovered in July 1999, the Old Bailey heard.

Pursued by Scotland Yard detectives, Wahid fled again before he could be tried there but was sentenced to death in his absence. He was eventually extradited from Bahrain last year - the first time anyone has been sent back to the UK from there.

Judge Paul Worsley told Wahid: "You are an intelligent but devious and manipulative man. There is indication of significant physical suffering before her death. You callously concealed her body in a suitcase."

Miss Kama (aged 28) lived her life "like Holly Golightly", the fun-loving Audrey Hepburn character in the 1961 film 'Breakfast At Tiffany's', the court heard.

She was on a week-long visit to London from Canada when she was attacked as she stayed in Wahid's brother's flat in Marble Arch, central London.

She was repeatedly stabbed in the back and her throat slashed before being taken to an airport car park on the Heathrow Express from Paddington station. She was found soon after the suitcase was spotted on a trolley.

DNA from the body linked him to Miss Kama, whose blood was found on carpets and skirting boards. Miss Kama had been due to fly home on Sunday and her family alerted police when she failed to turn up at Montreal airport.

Wahid refused to take part in the trial and turned down legal representation in the "mistaken belief" that he could abort the trial, the judge said.