A fitness trainer was jailed for at least 30 years today for murdering a businesswoman on their first date.

Karl Taylor stabbed Kate Beagley, a sales manager for Centrica, 31 times after the pair met for a drink. Her naked body was found after friends and family launched a frantic internet search during the four days she was missing.

Jailing Taylor, 27, for life at the Old Bailey, Judge Giles Forrester told Karl Taylor: "You are arrogant, manipulative and you are highly dangerous."

There were cheers and weeping from Miss Beagley’s friends and family in the public gallery as the jury found Taylor guilty after only two hours of deliberation.

Taylor, who had gone on the date with a knife up his sleeve, was arrested and led police to the body dumped in nettles in Oxhey Wood, north of London. She had been driven there by him in the boot of her grey VW Golf car which Taylor told police he had intended to steal when he met Miss Beagley.

Ms Beagley, 32, was killed in a frenzied attack as they sat on a park bench at a beauty spot overlooking the River Thames in Richmond, southwest London, last May. It was only yards away from multimillion-pound homes, including one owned by the former Texan model Jerry Hall.

Judge Forrester told Taylor: "I am satisfied that this was a murder done for gain. You went to meet this girl equipped with a knife. She was doing no more than looking to you for friendship. You took advantage of the vulnerability of that girl for your own ends."

Taylor interrupted the judge by saying: "I didn’t, your honour."

But Judge Forrester continued: "Your use of the knife was premeditated and it was concealed on your person. Then having carried out this foul deed, you took away and callously concealed this body, adding to the distress of her family and friends."

Taylor, of Covent Garden, Central London, had cynically claimed that Miss Beagley committed suicide in front of him by prodding her head forward on to the knife after tearfully telling him of her problems.

Miss Beagley met Taylor a few days earlier at the CC club in Central London and they exchanged phone numbers. But during the date at the Roebuck pub in Richmond Hill, Miss Beagley, of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, appeared to be ignoring him.

Another customer, Maureen Roncone, told police: "As soon as they sat down, the girl had her head down, texting on her mobile phone. The man was talking to her but she was ignoring him, texting on her mobile."

Taylor attacked her after they sat on the park bench to sip wine. Peter Clarke QC, prosecuting, said Taylor told police he stabbed Miss Beagley after telling her: "All I want is your car."

He told officers: "She pushed me away. She was grabbing me and I stabbed her in the throat. I constantly and consistently cut her in the neck because she was going for my face."

Taylor stripped her body and washed it with mineral water before putting it in the car boot and dumping it. He threw the murder weapon, her clothing and unwanted belongings on the roadside by the M1.

Taylor later showed off his "new car" to friends and family. He sold Miss Beagley’s mobile phone to a friend.

Taylor, who grew up in Notting Hill, West London, claimed to have good business qualifications but switched to being a fitness instructor. At the time of the murder, he was giving unpaid football coaching to schoolchildren. Friends said he had mood swings - laughing and joking one minute and bursting into tears the next.

Miss Beagley’s father, Alan, said his wife suffered frequent nightmares after the murder. "I feel cold and empty and will never lose that feeling," he said in a victim impact statement read out to the court by Mr Clarke. "Kate was so vibrant and full of life."

Her 95-year-old grandmother was in tears every day, he said, and friends needed counselling because of what happened. He added: "Kate was so badly damaged that we could not see her to say goodbye. What must it have felt during those last seconds as she was savagely struck down?"

Mr Beagley said his daughter was "loved by so many" and her funeral was attended by 400 people. "The impact of this cruel and savage attack has changed the lives of so many forever," he said.

Outside court, Mr Beagley said: "Our lives have been turned upside down. The cruel and sudden loss of Kate has had an overwhelming impact on her family and friends and I speak for all of us when I say our lives will never be the same again.

"Our family has been devastated and life seems empty and meaningless without Kate."

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Preston-Heard said: "This was a tragic and senseless loss of life."

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