The Broadmoor Hospital patient who murdered PCSO Julia James in a "brutal and vicious" sex attack as she walked her dog has been handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 37 years.

Callum Wheeler, 22, waited for the mother-of-two, 53, in Ackholt Wood armed with a large metal bar before ambushing her near her home in Snowdown, Kent, on the afternoon of April 27 last year.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said Mrs James was subjected to a "brutal and fatal attack" as she fell to the ground while fleeing her attacker, adding: "This was a murder involving sexual conduct."

He was seen roaming around the countryside with the weapon the day before he killed Mrs James, who was off duty, walking her dog, a Jack Russell called Toby.

Wheeler, who was carried into the Canterbury Crown Court dock on Friday, wearing handcuffs, by staff from Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital, in Berkshire, where he has been held, was found guilty of murder in May.

He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 37 years on Friday by Mr Justice Wall, who told him: "The attack you launched on her was brutal and vicious."

Mr Justice Wall told Wheeler: "Your actions have not just served to end the one life prematurely but have also destroyed the lives of the whole of her family.

"I am drawn on the evidence to the obvious conclusion that this was a not a spur of the moment aberration by you.

"Rather it was an attack which was planned and thought through in advance."

He added: "You were there looking for a lone female victim and you were sexually motivated to do so."