by Keith Hunt

Body-in-the-suitcase killer Philip Bell will appeal against his conviction and sentence today.

The 23-year-old homeless drifter was jailed for life in February for the murder of teenager Terry Edmonds, with a minimum term to be served of 28 years.

Bell, a former removal man, was convicted by an 11-1 majority. Two previous juries had failed to reach a verdict and in an unusual move the judge allowed a third trial.

His lawyer will submit in the Court of Appeal in London that it was unfair to hold a third trial.

Terry, who was 17, was strangled with her own scarf and sexually assaulted in a car park stairwell, where Bell lived rough, next to Tunbridge Wells railway station on Easter Bank Holiday, April 17 2006.

She was found 12 days later in Bell's green suitcase, hidden behind a low wall under a ramp.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, told Bell: "You are an evil man who seems to have no conscience. As the police net closed around you, you lied and lied again to escape responsibility for what you had done."