Chilling video released by the police showed "cruel" Andrew Burfield leading investigators to a forest where he buried his ex-girlfriend after murdering her with an axe.
The 51-year-old, from Burnley, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years for the murder of Katie Kenyon, whose body was found in a shallow grave in a the Forest of Bowland on April 22.
Mum-of-two Katie was last seen getting in a van in Padiham on April 22, after concerned family members received cryptic text messages, sent from her phone, saying she had "gone away to work on herself".
READ MORE: Axe-murderer who hacked ex-girlfriend to death pleads guilty half-way through trial
After a massive search effort, her body was tragically found on seven days later on April 29 in a pre-dug grave.
When Burfield was later arrested on suspicion of murder, he told officers that he had taken Katie to the woods for a picnic.
During that time, he falsely claimed she had challenged him to knock a can of Coca-Cola out of her hand with an axe he was using to chop wood. He said that he had thrown the axe at a tree but it had bounced off and hit her in the back of the head.
A post mortem examination would later show that Katie had been struck 12 times to the head.
Bodycam footage shared by Lancashire Police shows Burfield, with his hands cuffed in the front, taking the officers to the area within the police tapes.
He stopped by a white mat and told the officers: "This is where we picnicked."
Then he walked further to another spot and he kneeled on the ground to explain the exact location where he buried Katie's body.
Yesterday, on the third day of the trial at Preston Crown Court, Burfield pleaded guilty to Katie’s murder.
Detective Chief Inspector Allen Davies, of the Force Major Investigation Team, said: “My thoughts remain with Katie’s family at this truly distressing time and I hope today’s sentencing will finally give them some sense of closure and allow them to finally grieve the mother, daughter and sister who was taken from them in the most barbaric circumstances.
"Andrew Burfield is a cruel, vindictive man who elected to run a trial despite the overwhelming evidence in this case.
"No sentence will ever make up for leaving children without their mother and family and friends facing the most unimaginable grief, but I welcome the life sentence handed down to Burfield.
"I hope Katie’s family can take some solace in knowing this dangerous monster is now behind bars for a significant period of time."
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