The killer: Obsessed with sex and strangulation

VINCENT Tabak turned from sordid voyeur to murderer after becoming obsessed with images of women being strangled during sex.

He also paid a prostitute having trawled escort and violent pornography websites in the weeks before throttling Joanna Yeates.

Detectives discovered his perversions had chilling parallels with how he killed his next-door neighbour.

Footage found on his laptops depicted women tied up in car boots – just as Miss Yeates’s body was temporarily left after she died. Pictures also showed a blonde woman in a pink T-shirt and jeans closely resembling Miss Yeates on the night of her death.

Images showed the woman with her top pulled up in a similar pose to how Tabak dumped Miss Yeates’s body.

Tabak, 33, who had never had a proper relationship until he met Tanja Morson online, was accused of misleading jurors by portraying himself as sexually inexperienced.

His depraved secrets were not heard by jurors trying him for murder. But detectives privately believe he killed the 25-year-old in a bid to re-enact his violent perversions.

Tabak paid for sex with a call girl while on a business trip to Los Angeles less than two weeks before killing Miss Yeates, officers found. He also contacted prostitutes in Newcastle last year – though it is not known whether any transactions took place.

In the weeks after the murder, Tabak searched “Jo Yeates” on Google minutes before logging on to view several home-made sex videos.

On the morning of her death Tabak logged on to a pornographic website and while there was no evidence of a sex attack on Miss Yeates, police believe he was aroused and gaining sexual gratification from the killing.

Nigel Lickley QC, who made two failed applications to include the evidence in the prosecution case, told Bristol Crown Court how pornography depicting violence was found “in a series of films”. Tabak also paid monthly subscriptions of £15 and £10 to access the Erotic Review and adultwork websites respectively, police discovered.

Images and videos depicting men gripping victims by the neck were found on a laptop and hard drives recovered from his home and office.