Twenty years for student killer

Colin Waite was trapped by DNA evidence

A man jailed for raping and battering an A-level student to death must serve at least 20 years behind bars, the High Court has ruled.

Colin Waite, 46, of Birmingham, killed Nicola Dixon in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, as she walked to a party on New Year's Eve 1996.

DNA finally linked him with the case six years later and he was jailed for life in November 2003.

The minimum sentence is the date when he may be considered for release.

Former chocolate factory worker Waite, of Kinver Croft, Highgate, was caught after being arrested for an unconnected offence and his DNA was found in relation to her death.

Mr Justice Davis said he was a large and powerful man who accosted Nicola on the street and took her into the grounds of an unoccupied house.

"Considerable force was used upon her, causing her severe internal head and brain injuries which would have rendered her unconscious.

Nicola had been on her way to a New Year's Eve party

"He then left her lying half-naked in the snow," he said.

He added Waite had a record for violence including a serious attack on a girlfriend in 1997.

Aggravating features of the case included the fact that he found a victim much younger than himself, whom he could overpower, and that he used the severest form of violence on her, the judge added.

"In my view this was offending of the gravest type and clearly merited a significant minimum term," he said.

He stated that 20 years was only the date at which he could be considered for release and that 11 months is being deducted in respect of the time spent on remand.