AN ex-soldier who killed a woman while re-enacting a sick porn movie, binding, gagging and subjecting the mum to a humiliating sexual assault, was today ordered to spend at least 17 years behind bars for the killing.

Stuart Edward Hulse, aged 47, of Lowton, a soldier who served in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, pleaded guilty to the murder of 46-year-old Shirley Brown at Manchester Crown Court in January 1998 and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

And today, after a review of the case by a High Court judge at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, he was told that, taking into account the time he spent in custody before his sentencing, it will be November 2013 before he can even apply for parole.

Mr Justice Teare said the savagery and brutality of Hulse's attack on Mrs Brown was such that 17 years was the very least he should serve for the murder.

Hulse had been watching a hardcore porn movie at a party in June 1996 and become so frustrated at the sick scenes that he used Mrs Brown to re-enact what he had seen.

Spotting her collecting milk from outside her home in Allerby Way, Lowton, Hulse sneaked unnoticed into her house, tied her up and subjected her to a humiliating sex attack of "great brutality".

He used her own tights, bound tightly around her neck, to strangle her to death, before leaving her body at her home and quitting the grisly scene.

Hulse, a married man who lived just a few hundred yards away in Slag Lane, was interviewed by police during the inquiry and denied knowing Mrs Brown, but was linked to the killing by forensic evidence.

When he was sentenced, the trial judge said he would consider the lack of pre-meditation and his guilty plea as mitigating factors.

And today, in setting his minimum term - or tariff - Mr Justice Teare added to that the possibility that he had not intended to kill Mrs Brown.

Lawyers representing him argued that his "positive" progress whilst in prison, in particular his participation on a sex offender treatment programme, justified a lesser term than 17 years.

But, giving his judgment, the judge said: "I am not persuaded that it is appropriate to take this into account because it is difficult to see how such progress mitigates the seriousness of the offence.

"It is not said to be 'exceptional' progress and it does not appear to be such.

"If it were correct to take it into account, it could not in my judgment serve to reduce the minimum period."

Hulse served 15 months and 20 days behind bars before he was sentenced and that time will count towards his tariff.

When the tariff has expired, he will only be released if he can convince the Parole Board he is no longer a risk to the public and will then remain on licence for life, subject to prison recall if he puts a foot wrong.