London, Nov 26(IANS) Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, who was given a life sentence Tuesday for raping and murdering teenager Hannah Foster, confessed his crime to Indian police four years ago, saying he killed her because “Asians would never be forgiven such a crime in England.”“I did it. I raped her. I strangled her,” he said in his confession, which was videotaped in India but never shown to the jury trying him at Winchester Crown Court because of Kohli’s claim that it was obtained under torture.

But The Times newspaper, which saw the video, said Kohli was calm and relaxed and looked his Punjab Police interrogator Sumedh Singh Saini in the eye while giving out his confession in a “matter-of-fact way.”

Kohli said: “March 14, 2003. 11.15 pm. I was dead drunk. And as I came out I saw this girl across the road. She was very pretty. I went to my car, took a U-turn and abducted her. I took her to a deserted place and raped her.

“I told her I felt very, very guilty. I told her I had two children and that it was the first time. I told her I am not that type of man. She threatened to turn me in and tell her parents. Scared, for I know Asians would never be forgiven such a crime in England, I strangled her while hugging her.

“I was out of my mind. It was only later that I realised I had destroyed my life. I had committed a crime,” said Kohli who was sentenced to serve at least 24 years without parole.

Kohli made his confession after being arrested in 2004 trying to escape to the Nepal border with aid worker Bharati Das, a woman he had tricked into marrying him.

Kohli had changed his name to Mike Dennis and was living a new life in the hill town of Kalimpong, West Bengal.