Former soldier guilty of murdering his Fife girlfriend in Lapland

A man has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, who was from Fife, at a husky farm in Lapland.

Karel Frybl stabbed Rebecca Johnson 40 times in the attack at a cottage in Kultimantie in December 2016.

She had defensive wounds and some stab wounds to her back meaning she must have turned away from her attacker at some point as she tried to escape.

Frybl has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.

Ms Johnson, 26, from Burntisland, Fife, was a member of the Santa Safari team which works with Oxford-based tour operator Transun Travel to organise Christmas-themed excursions to Lapland.

After the attack Frybl left the scene with some of his dogs and walked around two-and-a-half miles into the woods before being arrested.

Frybl admitted culpable homicide at an earlier court hearing but had denied the murder.

The Czech national claimed he suffered a loss of control at the time of the attack and could not recall anything of the stabbings.

However a psychiatric report ordered by the court found Frybl was not insane at the time of the incident.

The court in Rovaniemi found there was no doubt the crime was committed in a "particularly ferocious, brutal and violent manner".

It said the violence she suffered was well beyond culpable homicide and found him guilty of murder.

In Finland a life sentence is rarely more than 14 years.

He was also told to pay just under 40,000 euros in compensation