This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murdering his British girlfriend at a husky farm in Lapland, Finland.

Karel Frybl stabbed Rebecca Johnson 40 times at a cottage in Kultimantie in December 2016.

She had defensive wounds and some stab wounds to her back, meaning she must have turned away from her attacker as she tried to escape.

Johnson, 26, from Burntisland, Fife, was a member of the Santa Safari team, which works with Transun Travel, an Oxford-based tour operator, to organise Christmas-themed excursions to Lapland.

After the attack, Frybl left the scene with some of his dogs and walked about two-and-a-half miles into the woods before being arrested.

He admitted culpable homicide at an earlier court hearing but had denied murder.

The Czech national claimed he suffered a loss of control and could not recall anything of the stabbing. However, a psychiatric report ordered by the court found Frybl was not insane at the time of the attack.

The court in Rovaniemi found there was no doubt the crime was committed in a “particularly ferocious, brutal and violent manner”. It said the violence Johnson suffered was well beyond culpable homicide and found him guilty of murder.

In Finland, a life sentence is rarely more than 14 years. Frybl was also told to pay just under €40,000 (£35,500) compensation.