by Keith Hunt

Body-in-the-suitcase killer Philip Bell will stay behind bars for 28 years after losing his appeal against conviction and sentence.

The Court of Appeal in London ruled the conviction was safe and the life sentence tariff was not excessive.

The 23-year-old former removal man was jailed for life in February for the murder of teenager Terry Edmonds. He was convicted by an 11-1 majority.

Two previous juries had failed to reach a verdict and, in an usual move, the judge allowed a third trial.

Homeless Bell's lawyer submitted to appeal court judges it was unfair to hold a third trial.

Terry, 17, was strangled with her own scarf and sexually assaulted in a car park stairwell, where Bell lived rough, next to Tunbridge Wells railway station on Easter Bank Holiday, April 17, 2006.

Her body was found 12 days later in Bell's suitcase, hidden behind a low wall under a ramp.

The prosecution told how Terry, who lived at a nearby hostel for vulnerable young women, and Bell were on a "collision course" as they approached the Morrison's car park from the station within two seconds of each other.

They were both seen on CCTV at 6.23pm. There was then a "lost hour" during which Bell killed Terry. He emerged from the car park at 7.17pm. She was not seen alive again.

Bell, described by his lawyer as "a low calibre human being", maintained his innocence throughout the trials.

He claimed he was in his bedding in the stairwell smoking cannabis at the time Terry met her death.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, told Bell: "You are an evil man who seems to have no conscience. As the police net closed around you, you lied and lied again to escape responsibility for what you had done."

He said of Terry, whose ambition was to become a midwife: "Her hopes and dreams can never be fulfilled because of your foul act of murder. What makes it worse is the cold and callous way you treated her body."

The victim's mother Helen Edmonds read out a moving statement, speaking of her "beautiful TJ", that reduced jurors and others to tears.