A Co Antrim man has been given a minimum 25-year prison sentence for the murder of his neighbour 20 years ago.
66-year-old Elizabeth Smyth was beaten and strangled to death at her south Belfast home in October 1988.
William James Stevenson's eventual conviction came about because of advances in DNA testing.
He had originally been questioned by police in the days following Elizabeth's Smyth's murder, but was released without charge.
However, the case was re-opened in 2005 and Stevenson was linked to the killing after traces of his DNA were found on the pensioner's tights.
During his trial in September of this year, Belfast Crown Court heard how Stevenson, then aged 24, had beaten, choked and cut his victim. Her body had also been defiled after her murder.
Sentencing Stevenson to at least 25 years of a life sentence, Mr Justice Richard McLaughlin said there was little doubt that his victim had been attacked savagely and suffered very extensive injuries.
He described the defilement of the pensioner's body as 'tantamount to sadism' and said that protecting the young and the elderly was at the height of the court's responsibility.
44-year-old Stevenson, who appeared via video link from prison, is appealing the conviction.
