Sex offender jailed for killing girl and mum, after raping ten-year-old

A CONVICTED sex offender has been jailed for at least 32 years after admitting raping and murdering a 10 year-old-girl and murdering her mother at their home in Ayrshire.

Ex-soldier Thomas Smith, 26, lived next door to Diane Fallon, 43, and her daughter Holly in Cronberry in Ayrshire when he killed them last March and hid their bodies.

The High Court in Glasgow heard today that he was already on the sex offenders register after a sexual offence against another 10-year-old girl in Teesside in northern England in 2006.

Judge Lord Turnbull told him: "You have set a benchmark of depravity below which it is difficult to imagine any other human being sinking."

Speaking after the sentencing, relatives of Diane and Holly Fallon described Smith as "evil personified".

A statement issued on behalf of the family said: "There are no words in the human vocabulary which can describe the evil that stood in the dock today."