A KILLER who claimed his life sentence for bludgeoning a woman to death has had his appeal thrown out.

Martin Bell was jailed for life, with a minimum tariff of 12 years, in December last year.

He killed Gemma Simpson, a 23-year-old from Leeds, in a frenzied attack at his Harrogate flat in 2000.

He then buried her body at the nearby Brimham Rocks beauty spot where she lay undiscovered for 14 years before Bell walked into the police station at Scarborough and confessed.

The taxi driver was jailed for life after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and told he would have to serve at least 12 years.

However he challenged his minimum term at London’s Criminal Appeal Court, with his lawyers arguing it violated his human rights.

But his appeal has now been dismissed by three of the country’s most senior judges, who said the 12-year tariff was ‘not excessive’ for his crime.

Lady Justice Macur, sitting with Mr Justice Green and Judge Neil Bidder QC, said: : “There can be no sensible argument that the minimum term imposed by the judge was manifestly excessive or wrong in principle.”