ASHLEY Foster was this afternoon jailed for life for the murder of Stourbridge teenager Megan Bills.

The 17-year-old former Ridgewood High School student is thought to have been strangled by 24-year-old Foster at a hostel in Highgate Road, Dudley, sometime on Sunday April 16 last year.

After being found guilty this morning after a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court - Foster was sentenced this afternoon and ordered to serve at least 26 years before he can be considered for parole.

Megan’s body was found in a cling-film wrapped wardrobe in Foster’s bedroom nearly three weeks later after residents noticed an unpleasant smell coming from the room. 

Foster, of no fixed address, had claimed the smell came from the carpet, but when hostel staff investigated the following day - Thursday May 4 - Megan's decomposing body was found.

During the trial of Foster - the court was told Megan died after a sick sex game and that after her death Foster had scoured internet sites looking for "snuff" movies which involved death or simulated death during sexual activity.

In a letter to his mother Foster had said Megan liked to be strangled during sex and what happened was an accident but after deliberating on the case for six-and-a-half hours the jury returning a unanimous guilty verdict.

Judge James Burbidge told Foster as he sentenced him to life in prison: "You strangled her when she did not agree to it. She trusted you throughout the sex. I'm sure you carried out your fantasy and your perverted sexual pleasure."

He said he had left the teenager in a callous manner to go off and have dinner with his family which was "beyond belief".

The judge added: "I'm concerned about your attitude and your future risk to women.

"You've clearly devastated the lives of every member of the Bills family because of your warped and dangerous pleasure."

He added: "This young woman was killed by you - having met her barely a few hours before you extinguished her life.

"She was an immediately trusting character and that was entirely misplaced as far as you were concerned.

"I accept in the short time she met you she formed a liking for you and she agreed to have sex. I do not think she agreed to be strangled by you."

DI Caroline Corfield said after the case: "This is a terribly tragic death of a teenager with her whole life in front of her.

"Despite Megan’s apparent independence she was a vulnerable young lady who would never have imagined the dangerous lair she was walking into when she entered Foster’s room.

“Foster had an unnatural obsession with deviant sexual activity and he disposed of Megan’s young life to satisfy his own twisted desires.

"For Megan’s family, hearing the details of this evidence must have been unbearable.

"I am pleased the jury saw through his thin fabric of lies and found him guilty of murder and I can only hope this gives her family some sense of justice.”