A MAN who strangled a nurse at her Newton home has been jailed for life.

Brian Crosby, a drug addict who strangled Sandra Wilson at her house on Gladstone Way last December, was also ordered by Judge John Roberts that he must serve 26 years before he can apply for parole.

At Liverpool Crown Court last Wednesday, Crosby was told by Judge Roberts that he had seen his victim as a soft touch' and, after she refused to give him money, and for no other reason, he tied her up and strangled her.

"He then systematically raided her bank account until he had bled it dry and sold items of her property," he added.

Judge Roberts said that he abandoned her body after the killing and came and went as if he owned the house.' The 31-year-old then lied to neighbours about her whereabouts, saying she was in hospital and that he wanted to visit her, in an attempt to get money from them.

During the two week trial the court heard that after killing the 43-year-old nursing sister on December 29, Crosby kept up the pretence that she was alive, sending texts from her mobile phone to her relatives.

Her murder only came to light after he was arrested on January 5 this year for shoplifting and gave a false name of Brian Wilson.

He later told a police inspector he was concerned about his friend Sandra Wilson, who was a colleague of his girlfriend.

Crosby, of Cantsfield Street, Wavertree, denied murder and claimed two Jamaican men had kidnapped him on Boxing Day, as he owed his drug suppliers.

He told police that they has forced him to take them to a friend so they could get the money and that he took them to the nurse's Newton home, as she had helped him before.

He claimed he was taken upstairs and tied up by them and only managed to escape on New Year's Day when he found them gone.

He said he had gone back the day before his arrest but only went into the hallway and called out. When she did not reply, he left.

Police went to the house on January 6 and found her body on a settee in the living room covered with blankets, bed covers, pillows and a jacket.

vicki.stockman@guardiangrp.co.uk