A mum who murdered her two young daughters after they "got in the way" of her sex life has been jailed for life.

Louise Porton was sentenced to a minimum of 32 years in prison after she killed Lexi Draper, three, and 17-month-old Scarlett Vaughan 18 days apart.

The 23-year-old denied responsibility for their deaths but was found guilty after a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Jailing Porton on Friday, Mrs Justice Yip described her actions as "evil" and "calculated".

She told her: "These were blameless young children who were plainly vulnerable and ought to have been able to rely on their mother to protect and nurture them.

"Instead you took their young lives away."

The judge added: "One way or another you squeezed the life out of each of your daughters, only calling the emergency services when you knew they were dead.

"I am sure at the time of the deaths, you intended to kill each of your daughters.

"Why you did so, only you will know."

Porton, who described herself to male suitors as a "model", accepted 41 friend requests on a dating app just a day after Lexi's death.

She was described as being "calm and emotionless" following Scarlett's death and delayed calling an ambulance for the youngster, even filling her car up with petrol as the toddler lay dead or dying in her car.

When Lexi was ill in hospital, just over a week before she died, Porton took topless photos in the toilets and was arranging to perform sex acts for money with a man she had met through a website, the court was told.

Porton suffocated her in the early hours of January 15 last year and was then heard "laughing" at a funeral parlour two days before killing Scarlett on February 1.

Prosecutors said it had appeared to the funeral arranger present that Porton was "using FaceTime and that she was speaking to a man".

Both children had symptoms consistent with deliberate airway obstruction and Scarlett had signs of recent bleeding in her neck tissue, suggestive of neck compression, jurors heard.

Prosecutor Oliver Saxby QC previously said specialist doctors could find no "natural reason" for why either child had died.

Warwickshire Police said it was also "clear from the evidence" that she had tried to kill Lexi twice earlier in January before eventually succeeding.

Around that time, she used her Google account to search for "Why did my 3 year(-old) stop breathing", and "How long after drowning can someone be resuscitated?"

The girls' father, Chris Draper, who never had the chance to meet Scarlett, said today he felt "broken", with "nothing to live for".

In a victim impact statement read to court by the prosecution, he said: "Why did Louise do something so evil to our beautiful daughters?

"You are their mother, the person supposed to care for them, protect and love them.

"They were just an inconvenience to you; how could you do this?"

Porton, of Skiddaw, Rugby, sat in the dock throughout the hearing, with her head resting on her hands, looking down at her feet.

After sentencing, Detective Superintendent Pete Hill, of Warwickshire Police, said: "These were premeditated murders for which she has shown no remorse and the length of the sentence reflects this.

"I would like to thank the jury; they diligently went through the appalling details of Porton's crimes. They saw through her lies before returning a guilty verdict."