Frazer Neil was ordered to serve at least 19 years in jail before he can become eligible to seek his release on parole.

Neil, 25, had admitted killing Hannah Dorans during a phone call to emergency services but claimed: “I didn’t mean it.”

He denied murdering Miss Dorans, 21, at a flat in Hutchison Road, in Edinburgh, on February 11 last year by struggling with her, restraining her, grabbing her by the neck and compressing it and putting a cord or similar ligature around her neck and strangling.

Frazer Neil faces a life sentence after being convicted for the killing of his ex-fiancee, Hannah Dorans.

He was earlier found guilty of the crime but was acquitted of raping his victim.

A judge told Neil at the High Court in Edinburgh that his victim was “much loved by many and full of kindness and hope for future.”

Lady Scott said: “Her family have been left absolutely devastated and forever bereft.”

The judge said Miss Dorans had been close to reaching her goal of training to be a paramedic when Neil took her life.

Lady Scott said the evidence showed that Neil was possessive and controlling throughout their relationship before Miss Dorans asserted her independence and ended it.

She said that Neil had bombarded her with “an avalanche” of about 800 texts as well as messages and calls including declarations of love and accusations of infidelity following the break up.

Lady Scott said the messages were manipulative and apparently designed to re-assert control to some degree and to get her to visit his flat alone.

She pointed out that prior to the murder Neil had carried out computer searches for terms such as “culpable homicide” and “diminished responsibility”.

Lady Scott said a neighbour had heard the victim call out “please stop” during the fatal attack in which she was strangled. She told Neil: “This was a vicious and violent means of causing death.”

The court heard that Neil may be suffering from personality disorders including a narcissistic personality disorder.

Defence counsel Brian McConnachie QC said that Neil had great difficulty coming to terms with the breakdown in his relationship with Miss Dorans and in the early stages made “some kind of attempt on his own life”.

He said: “It seems clear he has genuine remorse for what took place.”

The defence counsel said that Neil was considered to be a high risk of suicide.

During his call to the emergency services after choking his victim to death Neil said: “I’ve killed her. I’ve killed her.”

Miss Dorans, formerly of Kippielaw Road, Dalkeith, in Midlothian, had ended their four year relationship shortly before she met her death. They had met while they were both first aid volunteers and became engaged in 2015.

Neil lured her to the flat after he discovered she had dated another man by withholding paperwork she needed for her car.

During his evidence Neil denied being jealous but told the court: “In some way, shape or form Hannah died at my hands.”

He claimed that he and his former girlfriend had a shared interest in Fifty Shades of Grey-type sex games.

The court heard that in March last year, while on bail for the murder, he got in contact with the victim’s parents in a bid to “help arrange” her funeral. Miss Dorans mother, Moira, recalled feeling “numb” when she read the Facebook message.

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Hannah Dorans murder: Edinburgh man jailed for life over death of ex-fiancee