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The former milkman who murdered schoolgirl Claire Tiltman in 1993 was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years. |
Colin Ash-Smith, 46, escaped a “life means life” sentence even though he has already been convicted of knife attacks on two other lone, vulnerable women in the same part of Kent.
Justice Sweeney said he had to pass sentence based on the law in force at the time of the murder in the mid-1990s. But he stressed there were no mitigating factors that could reduce the number of years Ash-Smith would have to serve.
The predatory armed killer, who has already served 19 years behind bars for his other crimes, will not now be eligible for release until he is 67.
Claire, 16, was knifed nine times in a dark alley as she walked to a friend’s house in Greenhithe. The stabbing bore the same hallmarks as Ash-Smith’s two other attacks in 1988 and 1995, which the victims were lucky to survive.
The judge, passing sentence at Inner London crown court, said Claire had been “an engaging and lively personality, extremely popular with a large circle of loyal friends.”
He told Ash-Smith: “I have no doubt this was a premeditated murder you carried out because of the feeling of power it gave you. You ended Claire’s young life, which was so full of promise, and caused unbearable grief to her family and friends.”
Ash-Smith had been found guilty unanimously by a jury on Thursday and in a show of cowardice he refused to leave his cell in the court building to face justice in front of the judge.
Throughout the 21-year gap between the murder and Thursday’s conviction, Claire’s family and friends kept on campaigning for her killer to be brought to justice — even after Ash-Smith had been jailed in 1996.
Yesterday the judge made a point of commending them for their efforts and for “the dignified way they had conducted themselves” in court during the trial. He offered his personal “sorrow for the burden they have had to bear for many years for Claire’s untimely loss”.
The judge also commended the cold case review by Kent Police that finally brought Ash-Smith to justice.
The killer had been sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 15 years, in 1996 for the two other attacks on women.
With time running out before he was eligible for release, detectives assembled all the new evidence and re-arrested Ash-Smith on the day he was due to apply for release in front of the parole board.
Detective superintendent Rob Vinson yesterday said: “My officers had a Herculean task to bring him to justice. There was a strong likelihood that Ash-Smith was about to be allowed out on home visits and day release.”