THE MAN who bludgeoned a Hampshire grandmother to death in her own bedroom has been told he may never be released.

Jamie Boult will serve a minimum of 25 years for the murder of Delia Hughes in her Ocean Village flat, in Southampton.

He had been found guilty by a majority jury verdict of 10 to two this morning.

Boult, 25, waited in the 85-year-old's bedroom before hitting her repeatedly over the head with a lump hammer.

He had picked her home at random on the morning of Saturday, August 18 last year, intending to “kill whoever was in there” jurors were told by prosecutor William Mousley QC.

The impact of Delia's death on her family was laid bare to the judge in a victim impact statement this afternoon from daughter Beryl.

It began by saying: "I've never seen a dead body before. Seeing my mum her head battered, covered in blood, black and blue with bruises, sitting in a pool of blood, blood splattered on the walls, this is a sight that will stay with me for the rest of my life."

"Mum being poked around by strangers, pathologist and forensic, taken out of her little flat in a body bag - she would not want that. Mum lying in a cold morgue - she hated the cold.

"Not being able to bury her complete, her brain missing for pathology, her personality gone with her brain, which kept her functioning for 85 years. Gone my lovely mum."

Delia's daughter Beryl and son in law John were in the public gallery accompanied by friends and family waiting to hear how long her killer will be jailed for.

Earlier there were tears on the landing outside court as the enormity of the verdict as the legal process seeking justice for Delia was nearing the end.

The judge who jailed Boult today told him it might never be safe to release him from prison.

Sentencing him to 25 years in prison as a minimum term, he told him : "Jamie Boult this is a shocking case. On August 18 last year you walked into the home of an 85-year-old lady, Delia Hughes, and battered her to death with a heavy lump hammer which you'd brought to the scene from your home more than two miles away. Her death is a terrible loss to her daughter Beryl Catterall and to all her family and friends.

"The sentence for murder is as it must be; imprisonment for life. The starting point in an ordinary case of murder with a weapon taken to the scene is a minimum if 25 years. But in this case your victim was vulnerable and defenceless.

"I accept that you did not target her because of her age and that the killing was random in the sense that you walked in through open patio doors and killed the occupier who happened to be Mrs Hughes.

"Nevertheless the fact that she was an 85-year old lady killed in her own home in the course of a burglary makes this a particularly serious case.

"I have decided therefore that the starting point in this case before taking into account of mitigating factors is a minimum term of 30 years."

"Mr Justice Bean then told Boult he took int account the fact he had handed himself in to police at a time when they had no evidence against him, that he had persistent and chronic social anxiety which is a recognised medical condition, and that he was of previous good character.

"Handing him a minimum sentence of 25 years he added: "I emphasise that the 25 year term is the minimum that you will serve. I am not ordering that you are to be released at the end of it.

"That will be a matter for the parole board and only in the year 2037 will they be entitled for the first time to decide whether it is safe to release you. Until and unless the board is satisfied that you are no longer a danger to the public you will remain in custody.

"It is quite possible that it will never be safe to release you."