MANINDERPAL Singh Kohli, a man of Indian origin, was today found guilty by a court of the rape and murder of 17-year-old British schoolgirl Hannah Foster five years ago.

Amid dramatic scenes at Winchester Crown court, 41-year-old Kohli was convicted by a jury of bundling the teenager into the back of his van, raping and strangling her before dumping her body in a ditch.

The sensational case had hit headlines in Britain and India where Kohli, a father of two, had fled after committing the murder in Southampton in 2003.

He changed his name in India, but was finally apprehended in Darjeeling and extradited to Britain in July 2007 following a media campaign by Hannah's parents and the Hampshire police.

Kohli had claimed he was innocent and that he had been abducted blindfolded and tied up on the night of Hannah's death and forced to have sex with the teenager.

During the six-week trial, he painted a picture of himself as a victim of a revenge attack orchestrated by his former colleague. Kohli said he owed his colleague £16,000 and had an affair with his wife.

Foster was walking a short distance home after a night out when she disappeared in March 2003. Kohli snatched the teenager from a street near her home in Southampton after she had spent an evening with friends.