A BUILDER today started a life sentence for the brutal murder and rape of a boutique owner 27 years ago.

Wayne Doherty, 50, will serve a minimum of 23 years behind bars.

Judge Philip Clegg said Doherty had robbed Norah Trott, 63, of life "in the most violent circumstances".

It emerged Doherty had been jailed in 1980 for a sex attack on two-year-old girl.

He abducted the child from a car park in North Street, Rochford, just metres away from where Mrs Trott's body was found two years earlier.

Judge Clegg said: "Clearly you were a very dangerous young man who the public needed to be protected from."

* FULL STORY ON PAGES 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, AND 14 IN TODAYS ECHO

Published Thursday, November 17, 2005