A MURDERER who was arrested wearing his victim's knickers as a sick trophy was jailed for life on Monday.

Mark Janani, 22, raped his best friend's lover when she turned him down for sex, then throttled her with a dressing gown cord while her 17-month-old son was also in the house, the Old Bailey heard.

As nursery nurse Sandra Poole, 35, lay dying, Janani frenziedly stabbed her in the stomach and tried to frame his pal by smearing his initials on the carpet in toothpaste on February 15 at South West Road, Leytonstone.

Ugandan Janani, of Ching Way, Chingford, left the body with her son Stephen for 18 hours. The toddler played with the murder weapons until the killer called the police impersonating a woman.

He was arrested three weeks later and tried to hide the black knickers in his jeans when detectives told him to strip. But scientific tests revealed traces of Miss Poole's DNA on the briefs. Jules Cain, the boyfriend Janani had tried to frame, confirmed they were Miss Poole's.

Janani, who worked for budget clothing store Mr Byrite, bragged in court of his sexual conquests and told how he wore a collection of underwear from various lovers.

The jury of seven men and five women unanimously convicted him of murder after just over four hours of deliberation.

Judge Michael Coombe told dreadlocked Janani: "This was a murder of outstanding brutality. You attacked her because you tried to have sex with her against her will.

"Realising you were not going to be successful in getting her consent you in effect raped her. There are other factors that made this in my view a case with virtually no mitigation.

"You deliberately tried to put the blame on another by marking the carpet with the initials JC.

"What makes it a terrible case is that you killed her when her 17-month-old child was in the house, if not in the room, and you left that child with his dead mother until the 999 call many hours later."

The killer was not only best friends with barman Mr Cain, he also lived with his 16-year-old sister. Mr Cain and Miss Poole remained on good terms after their separation.

Janani gripped the side of the dock and showed no sign of emotion as he was led to the cells.