Hello Kitty killers jailed for life

Updated at 6.43pm: A judge denounced three killers as worse than animals on Wednesday, and jailed them for life, saying that the public had to be protected from them.

Echoing the words of prosecutor Michael Arthur, Mr Justice Peter Nguyen in the Court of First Instance said: ''Even an animal would not have maltreated its own race the way the deceased in this case was treated.''

Fan Man-yee, 23, was held prisoner for a month from March 17, 1999. She was beaten daily until she died. Her body was dismembered, cooked and thrown away with rubbish.

Her cause of death remains a mystery as only her skull - which was stuffed inside a Hello Kitty doll, a tooth and some internal organs were recovered.

Chan Man-lok, 34, Leung Shing-cho, 27, and Leung Wai-lun, 21, were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.