A man has been jailed for life for the murder of Karen Heywood, whose body was found at a beauty spot near Arundel.

Father-of-two Jarno Cable, 25, of Laurel Grove, Bognor was found guilty of strangling her with his bare hands.

The body of Mrs Heywood, 35, was found in Houghton Woods in January.

Cable, also known as Lenny, had denied murder but was found guilty by a jury at Lewes Crown Court.

After a two-and-a-half week trial the jury took three days to decide Cable had killed Mrs Heywood for her money.

Sentencing Cable, Judge Richard Brown said: "On January 1 this year in a moment of wicked, cowardly and greedy madness you strangled the life out of a totally defenceless Karen Heywood."

Judge Brown told the court Cable had changed his statement during the hearing and had "tried to pull the wool over the jurors' eyes".

The mother of Mrs Heywood, Shirley Crane, and Mrs Heywood's sister, Sue Green, shed tears and hugged one another as the verdict was announced.

At the time of her death Mrs Heywood had been recently divorced and had a settlement of £14,000 in her building society account.

The mother-of-two had booked into a bed and breakfast in Bognor to plan her wedding to Bill Janes, whom she had met at a hostel in Winchester.

Cable had offered to take Mrs Heywood back the hostel on January 1 but instead drove to a Sussex beauty spot and demanded cash from Mrs Heywood.

But realising it was New Year's Day and the banks were closed, Cable panicked and strangled Mrs Heywood, the jury heard.

He dragged her body out of the Ford Fiesta and dumped it in undergrowth.

It is believed the body was moved later the same day and lay undiscovered for more than two weeks.

Relatives of Cable shook their heads in disbelief at the verdict and left the courtroom immediately after he was sentenced.