A Frisian farmer who admitted murdering a 16-year-old schoolgirl 13 years ago, was jailed for 18 years by a court in Leeuwarden on Friday.

Jasper S, 45, was arrested last November after a dna test identified him as the potential killer of Marianne Vaatstra, who was raped, murdered and her body dumped in a field in 1999.

Last summer police organised a mass dna test of men living close to the field where the girl’s body was found in a last-ditch attempt to find her killer. Some 6,500 men volunteered for the test, including Jasper S.

During the trial, S admitted raping and killing the girl. S told the court he had spotted Vaastra while on a bike ride to ‘clear his head’ because of tension between him and his father. When he saw Vaatstra on her bike he said he decided to follow her. ‘You are mine,’ ran through his head, he told the court

S was not in court to hear the verdict ‘for personal reasons’.

Marianne’s father Bauke Vaatstra, who had campaigned to keep the case open, said that one day he will talk to S about the killing but that he will ‘never in his life’ forgive him.