Alexander Pacteau has been sentenced to a minimum of 23 years in prison for the murder of Irish nursing student Karen Buckley in Glasgow in April.
The disappearance of the young nurse from County Cork during a night out in the city sparked a four day search before her body was found on a remote farm.
Last month, 21 year old Pacteau admitted to her murder.
During the sentencing hearing this morning, Judge Lady Rae said he had carried out a "brutal, motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman".
"You went to extraordinary lengths over several days to cover up your actions by attempting to destroy her body" she said.
"You also concocted a story to tell the police; and to ensure that you remembered the lies which you had told, you even wrote the story down"
Karen's parents say they mourn their daughter every day, and they released this statement after today's sentencing:
"Today's life sentence will not bring out beautiful Karen back. Our little angel has been taken from us forever in the cruelest of ways. We mourn for her every day. It will however ensure that women are safe from harm from the truly evil coward who took our beautiful Karen's precious life. I hope that he is never released and spends every day in prison haunted by what he did.
Marian and I would again like to thank the people of Scotland and Ireland, the Irish Garda, and the Scottish Police and Prosecution service for all their help and support in bringing Karen's killer to justice. We appreciate most especially those who keep us in their thoughts and prayers.
We all want to move on and try to piece our lives back together. We have three wonderful sons and we need to be there for each other as a family. We would be grateful if we can now be left alone to grieve and our family's privacy be respected.
Karen is at peace now and we know that she is in heaven looking down on us and helping us."
