A psychopath who mutilated and murdered a three-year-old girl after being let out of hospital has had his minimum jail term set at 16 years by a High Court judge.

Shaun Armstrong, then 33, was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court in July 1995 after pleading guilty to murdering Rosie Palmer.

Armstrong, described as having a "severely disordered personality", abducted Rosie in June 1994 after she went to buy an ice lolly from a van outside her home in Hartlepool.

Police found her body hidden in a wardrobe at unemployed Armstrong's nearby flat three days after she disappeared.

After he was sentenced his tariff was set at 16 years.

Following a review of the minimum term, Mr Justice Crane, sitting in London, ruled: "Having regard to all the relevant factors I conclude that the minimum term should be 16 years, as was the tariff set, subject to a deduction of 12 months and 21 days for the period on remand."

The minimum term is the least sentence a prisoner must serve before being considered for parole. He would only be released if the parole board was satisfied he no longer posed any risk to the public.

Mr Justice Crane said it was the trial judge's view that Rosie "had almost certainly died because Armstrong suffocated her when she cried out at the assault".

He added: "The implication must be that he intended the death. He had previous convictions, but none of a sexual nature. He was 32 at the time of the murder."

Mr Justice Crane said the "murder of a child involving the abduction of the child or sexual or sadistic motivation normally now results in a whole life order".

He said: "It may well be that the degree of mental disorder and the plea of guilty would have led a sentencing judge to conclude that those normal consequences would not follow."

The minimum term would likely to have been 28 years and six months "on today's principles", added the judge.

"Even if greater weight were given to the applicant's (Armstrong's) mental state, a term of not less than 25 years would be inevitable."

He added: "There is no up-to-date information about the applicant. The victim's mother has not been consulted because of her fragile mental state."

Beverley Palmer, who was 36 at the time of her daughter's murder, has said in the past that Rosie's killing turned her into a "psychological wreck".