Hannah Foster (31 August 1985 - 14 March 2003) was a 17-year-old British student who was kidnapped, raped and murdered after a night out in Southampton in March 2003. Foster was murdered by an Indian immigrant Maninder Pal Singh Kohli. Her body was found in nearby West End, two days after she disappeared in Southampton.

Murder

Foster, a promising A-Level student who had been preparing to study medicine at university, was abducted half a mile from her home in Hampshire on 14 March 2003. Having been abducted by Kohli, Foster secretly made a call to emergency services in the hope they would realise she was in trouble. On the 999 tape, Foster can be heard speaking to a man with an Asian accent. The tape was played during the later trial at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday 15 October 2008.

Foster's body was found in a country lane just outside Southampton two days later. A post-mortem examination revealed she had been raped and strangled.

Kohli fled to India shortly after Foster's body was found, and was later identified by investigators as a prime suspect in the case. After Indian police failed to apprehend Kohli, Foster's parents personally went to India and made a public appeal for information of his whereabouts. During their 10-day visit, Foster's parents held a series of press conferences as well as opening a telephone "hotline". Their visit soon became a subject of interest in the Indian press, and Kohli was arrested five days after their arrival. Hampshire police announced a reward of INR 5,000,000 to anyone whose clues led to the arrest of Kohli.

The key to the arrest of Kohli was information from taxi driver Jason Lepcha, hired by Kohli partly because of his understanding of English. Lepcha received a reward of INR 367,000. He used all this money to establish a school in Hannah's name. When visiting Darjeeling in 2006, Hannah's parents unwittingly hired Lepcha as their driver, and heard his story. On their return to England, they worked with others to set up a registered charity in memory of Hannah which supports Lepcha's school.

Arrest and trial

Kohli was arrested on 15 July 2004 in West Bengal's Darjeeling district while trying to flee to Nepal. While in police custody, Kohli stated he was "tired of running". On 28 July 2004, Kohli admitted to having raped and murdered Foster in an interview to a private television channel. Confessing to his crime, Kohli said that he was forced to kill Foster after raping her because she refused to cover up his crime. In August 2004, he retracted his confessional statement saying it was "not by my own will".

Kohli was held in judicial custody in India pending extradition to the United Kingdom; a final decision to extradite him to the U.K. was handed down on 8 June 2007. On 28 July 2007 Kohli arrived in the UK after being extradited.

Kohli was charged with the murder, kidnap, and rape of Hannah Foster after landing at Heathrow, following his extradition from India. He was also charged with manslaughter, false imprisonment, and perverting the course of justice.

On 10 December 2007, Kohli entered a plea of not guilty to the charges of kidnapping, rape and murder at Winchester Crown Court, but he was convicted on 25 November 2008 of all charges and sentenced to 'life' in prison.

Sentence

On 25 November 2008, Kohli, then aged 41, was found guilty of all charges at Winchester Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommended minimum term of 24 years, less two years for time already served in the UK on remand. Hannah's family expressed their disappointment in the sentence, hoping that the killer would spend the rest of his life in prison.

Under the trial judge's recommendation, Kohli is expected to remain in prison until at least 2030 and the age of 63.

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Man found guilty of Hannah murder

BBC.co.uk

November 25, 2008

A man has been jailed for life for the "appalling" murder, rape and kidnap of 17-year-old Hannah Foster.

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, 41, who denied all the charges, was convicted more than five years after Hannah was found strangled.

She had been walking a short distance home after a night out in Southampton when she went missing on 14 March 2003. Her body was found two days later.

Her father, Trevor Foster, called Kohli a "cold, calculating and ruthless man".

"Today we are feeling an overwhelming sense of relief at the verdict in this trial," he added.

"We have long realised that Kohli is a cold, calculating and totally ruthless man and has destroyed so many people's life without a second thought."

On the run

Kohli snatched the teenager from a street yards from her home in Southampton after she had spent an evening with friends.

The A-level student called 999 in the hope an operator would hear what was happening, but the call was terminated when she did not speak.

Kohli dumped her body next to a road in Allington Lane, West End, and went back home to his wife and two sons.

Four days later, he fled to India, where he led a life on the run for 16 months before being arrested.

While in custody in India he gave a televised confession which he later retracted.

After more than four years of campaigning by Hannah's parents Hilary and Trevor Foster, Kohli was finally extradited back to Britain last year to stand trial.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by Hannah's aunt Jill Lewis, Hannah's mother Hilary said she would feel guilt for the rest of her life that she was not there to protect her daughter when she was murdered.

"Kohli ripped out my heart and stamped on it," she said.

"When Trevor and I saw Hannah in the mortuary, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, there must be some mistake.

"The cold, battered and bruised body certainly looked like her, but where was the sparkle in her eyes?"

Speaking earlier to the BBC, Mr Foster said: "I remember talking to her and saying, 'We'll find who did this to you'. And that's what we've been focused on doing since."

Mr and Mrs Foster said it was only now after Kohli was convicted that they could properly start to grieve for their daughter.

"The focus has been on her killer, not on Hannah," Mrs Foster said.

Her husband added: "I don't think there is such a thing as closure.

"It doesn't go away, the grief and the pain, they're going to be there until the day we die."

'Wanton disposal'

Sentencing Kohli to serve a minimum of 24 years at Winchester Crown Court, judge Mr Justice Keith said his crime was aggravated by "Hannah's vulnerability as a young slip of a girl, the terrible and appalling ordeal which Hannah must have gone through before you killed her.

"The wanton way you disposed of her body and the unimaginable grief to which you have subjected her family."

The verdicts came at the end of a long campaign by Hannah's parents, who had travelled to India four times to keep up the pressure on Indian authorities and get Kohli back to face justice.

Their first trip in July 2004 managed to locate Kohli after a national appeal for help across India, but the sandwich delivery driver fought his extradition for a further three years.

Kohli spent 16 months on the run, even marrying another woman before he was arrested.

Det Supt Alan Betts said: "Kohli did everything he could to avoid justice, and it was only through the determination of Hannah's parents, Hampshire Police, and colleagues in India that he was located and arrested.

"Our thoughts today are with Hannah's family. They, and we, may get some satisfaction that Kohli has been convicted, but it will not bring Hannah back."

Alastair Nesbitt, chief crown prosecutor for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said: "It was important to bring Hannah's killer to justice.

"We did consider whether we would deploy an alleged confession but came to the conclusion we could not overcome the hurdles to make it admissible to a court in England."

Hannah Foster's killer: Maninder Pal Singh Kohli