Life In Jail For Killer Boyfriend

2 July 2014, 11:24 | Updated: 2 July 2014, 11:28

The killer boyfriend of tragic Hazel North has been jailed for life for her murder.

John Davis was ordered to serve a minimum 20 years behind bars for what a judge branded a "wholly motiveless attack".

Davis returned to the High Court in Glasgow 24 hours after he pled guilty to Hazel's murder and then burying her body in a park close to his home.

Lady Rae told the 26 year-old: "The circumstances disclose that this was a brutal and prolonged attack.

"You destroyed a young woman’s life while she was in her prime and you have caused indescribable suffering to her family."

Davis showed no emotion as he was lead handcuffed to the cells to begin his life sentence.

Hazel's family - including parents Rosina and dad Graeme - were back in court to see the convicted thug locked up.

In a statement outside court, her grieving brother Michael North said he was "delighted" that "such an evil individual has been removed from society".

He added: "Nothing will bring Hazel back. We would ask people to remember Hazel for who she was and her beautiful smile and not the tragedy that ended her life."

The court on Tuesday heard how Davis battered the 19 year-old at his flat in Kilmarnock in March this year.

The tragic teenager - originally from Dunfermline, Fife - may have lay dying for up to 18 hours before her boyfriend delivered a fatal blow.

Davis then hid her remains in a shallow grave in Dean Park in Kilmarnock - just 300 yards from his home.

He later boasted to a friend: "I done her in and buried her."

It was only during a large-scale search to find Hazel that Davis finally handed himself into police weeks after the killing.

This was after he had fled the country in a failed bid to join the French Foreign Legion.

Hazel's naked corpse was discovered in a "reasonably well concealed grave" and was wrapped in a sheet and a curtain.

The court heard Hazel died having suffered "severe blunt force trauma” to her head, neck and body".

Her horror list of injuries included massive bruising and multiple fractures - including to the jaw, eye socket and 14 to the ribs.

The court heard it was the pathologists' opinion that the head and neck injuries "suggested a survival rate of at least 16-18 hours" after they were sustained.

Prosecutor David Nicolson went on: "The injuries to the addomen - in particular the liver damage - are such that the deceased would have bled very heavily and would be expected to die quickly thereafter."

Davis also in court pled guilty to attempting to defeat the ends of justice

Lady Rae said it was clear Davis had a "considerable propensity for violence".

The court heard on Tuesday that he was jailed for a vicious assault using a golf club in 2012 - but had been freed early from prison at the time of the killing.

Lady Rae said this latest jail-term would have been 23 years, but for his guilty plea.

The judge added: "The assault must have been perpetrated over a long part of the day. Tragically you sought no assistance for her."

In covering up the death, she also told Davis: "You must have caused the family untold suffering not knowing where she was or whether she was alive or dead."