[bbfan1991]

A taxi driver has pleaded guilty to the murder of Sian O'Callaghan who went missing after visiting a nightclub in Swindon in March last year.

Christopher Halliwell, 48, of Ashbury Avenue, sexually assaulted the 22-year-old office worker and stabbed her in the head and neck.



Her body was found days later near the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire.

Halliwell was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court to life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years.

Miss O'Callaghan had left the Suju nightclub at 02:53 GMT on 19 March for the short journey home.

The court heard Halliwell had been cruising around Swindon that night deliberately looking for a victim.

He had switched off the radio inside his vehicle which allowed colleagues at his taxi company to know where he was.

Visited body

After leaving the nightclub, Miss O'Callaghan walked past the Goddard Arms on High Street in the Old Town area and got into Halliwell's taxi.

Halliwell killed Miss O'Callaghan in Savernake Forest
He drove his victim to Savernake Forest, near Marlborough in Wiltshire, where he killed her.

About 400 people helped police search the forest, where a signal from her mobile phone had been picked up soon after she was last seen.

A £20,000 reward to help find her was offered by an anonymous donor.

Using CCTV, police identified Halliwell through the number plate on his car and he was put under surveillance.

He made four visits to where Miss O'Callaghan's body was hidden in the 24 hours after her abduction.

By the early hours of 21 March Halliwell had moved the body from Savernake Forest to the spot where it was later found.

'Raw pain'

He then attempted to cover his tracks by cleaning his car and burning his seat covers.

Halliwell was also captured on CCTV at a petrol station with posters about Miss O'Callaghan's disappearance in the rear windows of his taxi.

He was arrested on 24 March outside an Asda store in Swindon after buying a quantity of drugs.

Police feared he was about to take his own life.

When Miss O'Callaghan's body was discovered five days after she went missing, her father Mick spoke of the family's "raw and overwhelming" pain.

Her body had been found face down and naked from her waist to her ankles.

Forensic examinations found Miss O'Callaghan's blood in the rear of Halliwell's car

Miss O'Callaghan's family were in court to see Halliwell plead guilty.

A victim impact statement from her boyfriend Kevin Reape, which was read in court, said his heart had been "ripped out" and his life "destroyed".

[Kate!]

Evil man, hope they throw away the key.

[Jake.]

****ing disgusting.