A BUDDHIST monk has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering a work colleague by hacking him to death with a meat cleaver.

Nalaka Thero Rathmalane, 36, murdered fellow Sri Lankan Siriwimala Thero Patapiliyagoda, 30, at the Hampshire hotel where they worked as housekeepers on December 20 2001, Winchester Crown Court heard.

After killing Mr Patapiliyagoda, who was known as Wimal, Rathmalane bundled the body into a suitcase and dumped it at Basingstoke railway station.

The jury took less than two hours to find Rathmalane, who was dressed in the orange robes of a Buddhist monk, guilty of murder.

They rejected defence claims that Rathmalane, who admitted killing Wimal, had his judgement and self control altered because he was clinically depressed. The defence had argued he should have been found guilty of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

Sentencing Rathmalane, Justice Richard McCombe said: "There can be no doubt you have been convicted of the most appalling brutality upon this victim. The only sentence the law permits me to pass upon you is one of life imprisonment."

During the two-week trial Michael Parroy QC, prosecuting, told the jury that Rathmalane and Wimal had entered Britain illegally in September 2001 and were working at the four-star Audleys Wood Hotel in Basingstoke. On December 20 an argument occurred between the men.

Rathmalane told police that Wimal had attacked him with a knife. The had then hit his attacker with a chair and gone down to the hotel kitchen to get a meat cleaver. He then went back to the room and attacked Wimal, causing a total of 36 wounds, several of which pierced arteries in his neck.

The jury then heard Rathmalane put 5ft 5in Wimal into a brown zip-up suitcase and then ordered a taxi to go to Basingstoke railway station. Rathmalane then dumped the suitcase on the forecourt of the railway station and fled to his brother's fiancee's house in Kingston, Surrey.

While in Kingston, Rathmalane, who had denied murder, booked a one-way ticket back to the Sri Lankan capital Colombo but police managed to trace him and he was arrested.

In the witness box Rathmalane had spoke of his shame at the killing. After the verdict his defence council, Owen Davies QC, told the court: "This is a man who acted entirely, completely out of character on one occasion in his life."

Rathmalane, the court was told, had trained to be a Buddhist monk since the age of seven.