Garath Davies
was told by a judge at the Old Bailey on Friday 11th
January 2008 that he faced a minimum term of 23 years for
killing Egeli Rasta.
Judge Richard
Hawkins said he believed the attack had "sexual motivation
and involved sexual conduct".
As Davies
was taken down, Miss Rasta's boyfriend, who was in the
public gallery, shouted: "Rot in hell."
Davies, 23,
of Mitcham, south London, told a trial he had been
chain-smoking cannabis and was "very stoned" on the day
the 27-year-old Estonian died.
Miss Rasta
went missing in July 2006 and her body was undiscovered
for 12 days after she was killed.
Davies was
found guilty at trial in November 2006 of murder and
perverting the course of justice by burying the body to
avoid detection. the jury were told that evidence pointed
to a "sexual motive" for the killing. Detectives found a
kitchen knife covered in blood at the home of unemployed
Davies, a house he shared with his mother.
The name "Gaz"
was carved into the branch of a tree near where the naked
body of Miss Rasta was found after police were alerted by
a dog walker.
Davies,
originally from Llanelli, South Wales, later told police:
"I'm afraid I might have done it. I can't remember."
The court
heard that Miss Rasta, who was "fit, athletic and quite
strong", lived near Mitcham Common and would often jog and
sunbathe there.
She
disappeared on 4th July 2006, a day after working a shift
at Harrods in Knightsbridge.
Mark
Ellison, prosecuting, said Davies was "something of a
loner" who spent much of his time on the common alone or
with his black Staffordshire bull terrier Tyson.
Precisely
what happened to Miss Rasta was unclear as her body lay
undiscovered for 12 days and decomposed so badly that a
pathologist was unable to establish the cause of death.
The
victim's mother, Sirje, told the court in a victim impact
statement that her daughter wanted to become a social
worker and that "helping others would be her mission in
life". "This horror will never end for me and my family,"
she added.
Davies has
two previous convictions as a teenager for knife
possession, at the time telling police he had the blades
to defend himself from bullies.