A chef who stabbed his former partner 21 times then tried to cover up his crime by repeatedly knifing himself has been jailed.

Mohammed Ali Abboud, 57, killed Polish teacher Agnieszka Szefler at his home in Bridge of Earn, Perthshire, in a frenzied attack in which he also repeatedly bit her.

After killing her, he moved the 27-year-old's body so it looked to police like she fallen on the kitchen knife.

However, the stabbing on January 23 last year, was witnessed by a neighbour who told the High Court in Edinburgh that she saw a man standing over the body of a woman in his garden and motioning a knife towards her stomach despite the victim's pleas for help.

Sentencing Abboud to spend a minimum of 20 years in jail, Lord Uist described the attack as a "savage and brutal murder of a 27-year-old woman."

He told Abboud: "You brought about her death by inflicting in her 21 stab wounds. She was unable to defend herself and you showed her no mercy."

Abboud was found guilty after an eight-day trial in December. The jury came to a unanimous decision after two and a half hours.

The court heard that Abboud and Ms Szefler were initially in a relationship.

She had moved to Kuwait to take up a teaching post and the couple tried to maintain their relationship through Skype, however Ms Szefler decided to end things.

She travelled back to Scotland to pick up her belongings from Abboud's home, insisting to him that there was no chance of a reconciliation.

But he could not accept this and when they got there an argument broke out, which resulted in Abboud picking up a kitchen knife to launch his attack.

In his sentencing statement, Lord Uist said: "Mohammed Ali Abboud, you were convicted by the jury of the savage and brutal murder of your former partner, Agnieska Szefler, a 27-year-old woman of considerable promise, on January 23 last year at your home in Bridge of Earn.

"She was unable to defend herself and you showed her no mercy. Even after she had escaped into the garden you pursued her and repeatedly stabbed her yet again.

"You thereafter took steps, which included inflicting knife injuries on yourself, in an attempt to make it appear that she had attacked you with a knife. Your account of events at police interview was just ridiculous and rightly disbelieved by the jury.

"After your conviction you were given the opportunity to tell the truth to the social worker appointed to compile a report on you for this court about what happened but failed to avail yourself of that opportunity and persisted in your obviously false account.

"You are now 57 years old and have no previous convictions. I take into account the contents of the criminal justice social work report and all that has been said on your behalf when I fix the punishment part of your sentence, that is, the period which you must spend in full in prison before you can even apply to the Parole Board for Scotland to be released on licence.

"The sentence for murder is fixed by law and I must now impose that sentence upon you. I sentence you to imprisonment for life.

"Having regard to the nature and extent of the violence which you employed, as well as your conduct as set out in charge two, I fix your punishment part at 20 years."

Speaking following the sentencing, Liam Murphy, procurator fiscal for north of Scotland, said: "Mohammed Ali Abboud has been brought to justice for a terrible crime.

"He carried out a brutal and relentless knife attack on his unsuspecting victim leaving family and friends devastated at the loss of a loved one

"Taking the life of another is the most serious crime and must therefore come with the most serious consequences as today’s sentence demonstrates."

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