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Homeless drifter Philip Bell has been jailed for life for the horrifying murder of body-in-the-suitcase victim Terry Edmonds.

The 23-year-old drug addict was told by a judge he would not be considered for release until he has served a minimum of 28 years behind bars.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, added: "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, 17, whose ambition was to become a midwife: "Her hopes and dreams will never be fulfilled because of your foul act of murder.

"What makes it worse is the cold and callous way you treated her body. No doubt in order to put distance between you and your crime and thinking only of yourself, you bundled her into that suitcase."

The victim's mother Helen Edmonds read out a moving statement that reduced jurors and others at Maidstone Crown Court to tears.

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• 'Her dreams can never be fulfilled because of your foul act of murder' - judge's comments >>>

• Watch Patrick Gearey's video report on the right of this page.

• Audio: Det Ch Insp Dave Withers, who led the investigation, speaks to Caroline McGuire outside court >>>

Bell, a former removal man, was convicted on Friday by an 11-1 majority. Two previous juries had failed to agree on a verdict.

Terry 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 Monday, April 17, 2006.

The victim, who lived at a nearby hostel for vulnerable young woman, was found 12 days later in Bell's green suitcase, hidden under a ramp.

Simon Ringrose from the Crown Prosecution Service described Terry's killing as "macabre" and "horrific".

He added: "It was a very shocking case, a 17-year-old girl just making her way home taken off the street in broad daylight and murdered by Bell. It was compounded by the way her body was concealed."

Mr Ringrose also paid tribute to the strength, bravery and dignity Terry's family displayed during all three trials.

"Terry Edmonds's untimely death is a tragic waste of life. We hope that her family and friends will be able to take some comfort from the conviction of Philip Bell," he said.

Jo Millington, senior forensic scientist at the Forensic Science Service's homicide department, said: "We had to analyse an almost unprecedented range of different types of evidence to provide the police with the information they needed.

"The complex nature of the investigation demanded close collaboration with the police so that we could share our intelligence as each new piece of the jigsaw came together."