Russian serial strangler jailed for life

A Russian court sentenced a man to life imprisonment on Monday for sexually attacking and then strangling to death 15 women and a teenager, the prosecutor's office said.

Vladimir Mirgorod, 32, was found guilty of carrying out the series of murders after raping or sexually assaulting his victims between 2002 and 2004 in Moscow and deserted areas around the capital, the prosecutor's statement said.

"All the victims died from asphyxia at the scenes of the crimes, strangled with a cord," it said.

The killer evaded arrest for several years because he was serving a separate jail sentence.

"When Mirgorod was released in 2010, having served his sentence for robbery and rape, investigators checked his fingerprints and found that they were identical to those left at four crime scenes," the statement said.

Further scientific analysis then gave investigators enough evidence to charge him with the killings, it said.

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