Sadistic landlord gets life for body-in-suitcase killing

And, as Kim Kyu Soo was led to the cells at the Old Bailey, detectives said he would almost certainly have struck again if police hadn't caught him.

Kim's two victims in Britain met terrifying deaths. He bound their mouths and noses so tightly with tape that their eyes bulged as they struggled in vain to breathe.

He then concealed their bodies - one in a suitcase - which was found on a North yorkshire roadside - and the other walled up in a sealed compartment.

Kim, 31, from Holborn, central London, h denied murdering Jin Hyo Jung, 21, and Song In Hea, 22. He admitted the manslaughter of Miss Song, but his plea to the lesser charge was not accepted by the prosecution.

Both women were South Korean on visits to Britain, Jonathan Laidlaw, prosecuting, told the court.

They were both almost naked or in a state of undress when they were eventually found.

They were bound by the wrists with parcel tape so they could not resist, said the prosecution. The tape was then bound around their noses and faces.

Miss Jin's body was forced into a large suitcase which was dumped in a country lane in Askham Richard, North Yorkshire, and found last November.

The motives remain a mystery.

Neither victim had been subjected to a sexual assault, according to the post mortem examinations.

Kim showed no emotion as the jury returned the two guilty verdicts.

Sentencing him to two life terms, Judge Jeremy Roberts said he had ''snuffed out the lives of two innocent young girls''.

Detective Chief Inspector Vic Rae of the Metropolitan Police Serious Crime Directorate said afterwards Kim's immediate arrest on his return to Britain from Canada in January last year had probably prevented further deaths.

''We will see him in prison. It would be neglecting our duty not to interview him about anything he might want to tell us.''

The case had been ''very unusual, very complicated and very gruesome'', he added.