A man fro Kent has been jailed for 30 years for killing a woman in southern France.

Robert Plant, 36, stabbed Joudia Zimmat to death in a picturesque ancient town.

The mother-of-three's body was discovered in scrubland near a cemetery on the outskirts of Nimes in January 2013.

When Plant was arrested in 2013, a box cutter-style knife and two blood-stained stones were said to have been found near her body.

Plant, who is originally from Chatham, lived with his mother near the scene.

The alarm was raised after Ms Zimmat did not turn up to pick her children up from school.

Her partially-clothed body was discovered in scrubland.

Ms Zimmat was reported to have been sexually assaulted, stabbed and beaten - with her face so badly disfigured she was left "unrecognisable".

Nimes, which dates back to the Roman Empire, is a popular destination for tourists in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France and famous for its amphitheatre.

The court in Nimes ruled that Plant should not be eligible for parole for 20 years.