A man has been jailed for life after murdering a woman at a Paddington flat and dumping the body in a suitcase at Heathrow airport.

Yousseff Wahid, 42, was today told he would serve a minimum of 24 years for the murder of Fatima Khan in 1999.

The killer was caught on CCTV lugging a suitcase containing his victim’s body around Heathrow airport where he dumped it.

He then fled the country and travelled around the Middle East living under false names for 12 years before he was tracked down and brought back to the UK.

Passing sentence, Judge Paul Worsley QC told Wahid: “I am entirely satisfied that your intention was to kill.

“There has been no flicker of remorse shown by you. You are, in my judgement, an intelligent but devious and manipulative man.

“Upon your arrest you denied you were Yousseff Wahid and claimed you had never been to the UK. Fingerprints proved otherwise.

“You have dispensed with the services of two firms of solicitors and the services of leading and junior counsel.

“You have refused to participate in proceedings and have refused to come into the court, believing mistakenly that you could abort the trial thereby. Justice is not so easily thwarted.

“You have done your utmost to avoid conviction for her murder. You have failed.”

Miss Kama’s body was found abandoned in a suitcase on a luggage trolley in a Heathrow airport car park on July 17, 1999.

Members of the public had alerted security to an unattended suitcase and when the security guard forced it open he saw the 28-year-old’s body curled up in a foetal position.

A post mortem revealed she had been sexually assaulted, stabbed multiple times, and had her throat slashed.

Canadian citizen Miss Kama was a regular visitor to London and was staying at Wahid’s brother’s flat in Portsea Place with her killer. She was due to fly back to Montreal on the evening of her death.

The day after dumping the body Wahid flew out of the Heathrow for Beirut in his native Lebanon where extradition was not possible.

He fled again before he could be tried there but was sentenced to death in his absence.

Wahid successfully evaded capture for more than a decade in total before Metropolitan police located and arrested him.

Det Ch Insp John McFarlane said he was pleased Wahid was “behind bars where he belongs” after such a “callous and shocking” murder.