A HAMPSHIRE man who savagely murdered his partner before smothering his four-year-old son to death and laying him out in a bizarre ceremony on his bed was today jailed for life.

James Conan, 65, repeatedly knifed Kirsty O'Connell, 21, because she wanted to end their five year relationship, Winchester Crown Court heard.

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Then he smoked a cigarette, played for half an hour with his son Patrick before placing a pillow over the child's face and suffocating him.

Stewart Jones QC, prosecuting, said: "He then bathed and dressed him before laying him out in his room on his own bed. "He laid him out like a little warrior."

Mr Jones added that Conan placed a torch in the dead child's hand and placed his favourite toys, a dagger and a gun, as well as a note he had written for him, close by.

Conan, who previously was called Walsh but changed his surname by deed poll because of his fascination with the fictional mythic character Conan the Barbarian and was also interested in Viking culture which might explain the laying out of his son, added Mr Jones.

Mr Jones told the court that Kirsty had been killed in a hail of knife blows, 20 in all.

He added: "Thirteen were in a group on the front of her neck and throat, one severing her jugular vein."

She also suffered wounds to her hands as she tried to defend herself as well as bruising, consistent with being punched and haemorrhaging in her eyes which indicated she was also throttled.

The court heard that Kirsty had recently returned to her studies and was studying A levels. She had been accepted at Southampton University to study law.

Today, Conan was asked to plead again to the allegations of murder of Kirsty and Patrick at a flat in Woolford Close, Stanmore, in August 2007.

Conan had previously denied the charges but today he admitted murdering Kirsty. He again denied murdering Patrick but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The pleas were accepted by the prosecution.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Royce told Conan, a former security guard, that he would be ineligible to apply for parole for at least 16 years. He also jailed him for six years for manslaughter to run concurrently.

He said: "You are in the autumn of your days. Kirsty and Patrick had their lives stretching out before them. Lives which were cruelly and selfishly and unforgivably cut short by you.

"What you did has had a profound and devastating effect on Kirsty's family. They have to bear the burden of their loss for the rest of their lives and no sentence that this court can pass can begin to compensate them for that."