THE HAMPSHIRE man who murdered Danish schoolgirl Camilla Petersen at an Isle of Wight beauty spot was today starting a life sentence.

Richard Kemp, 53, showed no emotion as the judge jailed him at Winchester Crown Court yesterday.

Mr Justice Gibbs told him that he would probably remain in prison until death as he was likely to remain a danger to children.

Camilla's mother, Lonni, and sister, Annsofie, were in court for the whole trial. As the jury foreman announced the unanimous guilty verdict Lonni swayed forward before she was steadied by a detective and Annsofie gave a half smile.

The five-day trial heard how Kemp, a maintenance worker, of The Mews, Trinity Green, Gosport, had struck at Brading Down last July.

Camilla, 15, visiting the island on a language trip, had gone on her own to draw at the popular beauty spot. A semi-naked Kemp, who had a 30-year record of sex offending against children, spoke to her then dragged her into the woods, molested her and strangled her with her top, tightening the ligature when he sensed movement.

Kemp, a member of the Salvation Army in Gosport, removed forensically incriminating articles, left the body and returned home. But the following day he went back to the Island with several written confessions, most of which he posted to family and friends. He intended to kill himself but eventually handed himself in to the police.

In one confession, he wrote: "She was alone at the wrong place at the wrong time. Why I murdered her I don't know. I could have let her go but didn't."

Kemp denied murder but admitted manslaughter through diminished responsibility. The five-woman and seven-man jury took just an hour and a quarter to reject his plea.

Gordon Bebb QC, mitigating, said: "There's little to say.

"The defendant wishes to make public how truly appalled he is by his own actions."

Sentencing, Mr Justice Gibbs said: "You will be a serious and persistent danger to young people unless you remain in custody. It is my judgement that it will be most unlikely that it will ever be safe to release you.

"A very small mercy among the horror is that Camilla must have lost consciousness within a few seconds of the ligature being applied. There is a striking and chilling feature of the case, the apparent total, clinical recall you have of the details of what you did and the reasons you were doing it."

After the case, Det Sgt Heidi Oliver, who had briefly been overcome with emotion after the verdict, said: "I found this investigation one of the most harrowing that I have been involved in during my 23 years of police service.

"This was an unprovoked and evil attack upon an innocent and vulnerable girl.

"He deprived Camilla of the life that lay before her, and deprived her family of a loving daughter and sister. Their pain is hard to even begin to imagine and our hearts go out to them."

The trial hinged on evidence from psychiatrists over whether Kemp was "mad or bad".

Dr David Somekh argued Kemp had a psychopathic disorder and harboured violent fantasies against children.

He spent eight years at Broadmoor hospital from 1973-81 following four sexual attacks on children in 1972-73.

Kemp told psychiatrists that he started to revert to his old ways - walking naked in woods and carrying out indecent acts in public places - about 18 months before Camilla's death.