30 years for murdering executive on first date

A fitness trainer was sentenced to life at the Old Bailey today after being found guilty of the murder of a businesswoman on their first date.

Karl Taylor will serve a minimum of 30 years for knifing Kate Beagley, 32, repeatedly in the face, head and neck as they sat on a bench on Richmond Hill.

Taylor, 27, had armed himself with a carving knife and scissors, which he picked up from a friend's house, and slipped the blade up his sleeve before the date.

They shared drinks in the Roebuck pub, close to the home of model Jerry Hall, before walking to the bench where Taylor attacked her. Miss Beagley, a manager for gas firm Centrica, suffered 31 stab wounds.

Taylor, who had been working as a football coach, then dragged Miss Beagley's body to her VW Golf and drove up the M1 to a country park near Watford where he stripped the corpse and dumped it in undergrowth.

As he returned to London, Taylor, of Covent Garden, threw the murder weapon and some of the victim's clothes on to a motorway embankment, the court was told.

The following day Miss Beagley's father reported her missing and police arrested Taylor because she had told friends about their date. He then led officers to the body dumped in nettles in Oxhey Wood.

Cheers erupted today from the public gallery when the jury returned a guilty verdict after two hours of deliberations.

Friends and family had launched a frantic internet search for Miss Beagley during the four days she was missing.

A group on social networking site Facebook was launched with hundreds of friends and many others who did not know Miss Beagley willing her to be found alive.

But their worst fears were realised when police found her body near Watford.

In court, Taylor denied the murder last May. He cynically claimed Miss Beagley had committed suicide in front of him by prodding her head forward on to the knife after tearfully telling him of her problems.

Taylor demonstrated her actions using an envelope instead of a knife after being ordered to show the jury what happened by Judge Giles Forrester.

Taylor said after she finished: "I realised she passed away. I was crying profusely. I lay on the grass and looked at the sky."

Miss Beagley lived alone in a flat she had bought in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

The pair had met a few days before the killing on 30 May at the CC club in central London and exchanged numbers. But during the date at the Roebuck, overlooking the Thames, Miss Beagley appeared to be ignoring him. Witness Maureen Roncone told police: "As soon as they sat down, the girl had her head down texting on her mobile phone. There was no conversation, only him talking to her. She continued texting. She was still texting when they left."

After the killing Taylor stripped her body and washed it with mineral water before dumping it.