Landlord guilty of sticky tape murders

A landlord from London has been jailed for life for the sadistic murders of two young students he slowly suffocated with sticky tape and then entombed.

As Kim Kyu Soo was led to the cells at the Old Bailey, it emerged that he could have claimed other victims - possibly abroad.

Sentencing him to two life terms, Judge Jeremy Roberts said he had "snuffed out the lives of two innocent young girls".

Kim's two victims in Britain met terrifying deaths. He bound their mouths and noses so tightly with tape that their eyes bulged as they struggled in vain to breathe.

He then concealed their bodies - one in a suitcase and the other walled up in a sealed compartment.

Kim, 31, from Holborn, central London, had denied murdering Jin Hyo Jung, 21, between October 25 and 28, and Song In Hea, 22, between December 3 and 8, 2001.

He admitted the manslaughter of Miss Song, but his plea to the lesser charge was not accepted by the prosecution.

Both women were South Korean on visits to Britain when "they were murdered in the most chilling and distressing circumstances", Jonathan Laidlaw, prosecuting, had told the court.

They were both almost naked or in a state of undress when they were eventually found.

They were bound by the wrists with parcel tape so they could not resist, said the prosecution. The tape was then bound around their noses and faces.

As money had been withdrawn from cash machines using their pin numbers, "there is a dreadful possibility that the killings were deliberately extended so that information could be extracted from the victims", said Mr Laidlaw.

Kim wanted to cover up what he had done, he said.

Miss Jin's body was forced into a large suitcase which was dumped in a country lane in Askham Richard, North Yorkshire, and not found until November.

Miss Song's body "was concealed in a cupboard which was sealed at an address in east London. It was not discovered until March last year".

The motives remain a mystery.