A soldier who stalked his ex-girlfriend before cutting her throat from ear to ear has been jailed for 22 years after being found guilty of her murder.
Lance Corporal Trimaan "Harry" Dhillon left Alice Ruggles to bleed to death on her bathroom floor after breaking into her flat in Gateshead and slashing her neck.
He fled without calling 999 but remembered to take her phone and the murder weapon.
The 26-year-old had denied the killing, saying it was Miss Ruggles who had attacked him with a knife, accidentally stabbing herself in the process.
However, a jury at Newcastle Crown Court took less than two hours to dismiss his story.
The court heard that Miss Ruggles, 24, had been terrified of her former partner, and had received an official police warning to stop him from contacting her.
However, the Special Forces hopeful ignored it, driving from his Edinburgh barracks to Gateshead to kill her in October.
Sentencing Dhillon to life with a minimum of 22 years, Judge Paul Sloan 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, from Leicestershire, had met Dhillon online, while he was serving in Afghanistan.
When she ended the relationship in August last year he became obsessive, hacking into her Facebook account and sending her pleading messages.
He continued even after the police order, the court heard.
When Miss Ruggles contacted police again, they asked if she wanted him to be arrested but she declined. However, she later told a friend she felt she had been "palmed off", and told her sister that the police would only "respond when he stabs me".
Following her murder, Dhillon initially denied being at her flat altogether, but was forced to change his account after Miss Ruggles' blood was found on his Help for Heroes wristband and in his BMW.
He then claimed that she had attacked him.
Miss Ruggles suffered 24 injuries while Dhillon, who was almost a foot taller and three stone heavier, escaped unharmed.
The jury was played a harrowing 999 call from Miss Ruggles' flatmate, Maxine McGill, who discovered her body.
Miss McGill named Dhillon as the culprit in the emergency call, and he was arrested at his barracks that evening.
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