Penicuik based soldier jailed for life for cutting ex-girlfriend's throat

A Penicuik-based soldier has been jailed for more than 20 years for murdering his ex-girlfriend after breaking into her flat and cutting her neck open from ear to ear.

Lance Corporal Trimaan Harry'' Dhillon, 26, who stalked Alice Ruggles, left her to bleed to death on her bathroom floor in Gateshead last October.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that she was terrified of him and had got an official police warning to stop him from contacting her, but the obsessive and manipulative Special Forces hopeful ignored it, and drove from his Edinburgh barracks to Tyneside to kill her in a jealous temper.

Judge Paul Sloan QC told Dhillon, who he jailed at Newcastle Crown Court on Wednesday for life with a minimum term of 22 years, said the murder was an act of utter barbarism''.

He said: Not a shred of remorse have you shown from first to last - indeed you were concentrating so hard on getting your story right when giving evidence you forgot even to shed a crocodile tear.''

Miss Ruggles' family wept and hugged each other when a jury found him guilty of murder after deliberating for less than two hours.

There was no visible reaction from Dhillon.