'Evil' man jailed for killing student, 21

A man who said he "must be evil'' was jailed for life yesterday for murdering a dance student who vanished after leaving her parents' home on New Year's Eve to walk home.

Michael Little, 23, met Rachel Moran, 21, as she walked the half mile back to her home in Hull and lured her to his flat on a council estate. He stabbed her at least 20 times in the head, back, chest and neck and then put her body in a cupboard where it lay for four weeks.

Miss Moran, who was studying cabaret and entertaining at Hull College, d planned to spend the night of at her parents' home.

But after speaking to her boyfriend Mark Shepherd on the phone she decided to walk back to the home they shared on the Orchard Park Estate to feed her kittens.

Police only caught Little on 28 January when they searched homes close to a drainage ditch where her personal belongings had been dumped. Little confessed to the killing, telling police: "I can't be normal, I must be evil. A normal person would not do that." He claimed Miss Moran jogged up to him and asked if she could walk home with him as she felt safer. But inside the flat they argued and he hit her across the face with the back of his hand, he said.

But Little then changed his story and pleaded not guilty to murder. During a 12-day trial at Hull Crown Court, the jury was told that Little had sex with Miss Moran.

Little tried to blame the killing on his best friend . He told the court that Marc Fuller had gone "absolutely crazy" with a carving knife moments after walking in on him having sex with Miss Moran.

Outside court, Miss Moran's elder sister, Kerry Harpham, said that there had been no justice for victims of horrific crimes since the abolition of the death penalty.