French student's killer serves life term

Sophie Collombet's killer is serving the first day of his life sentence behind bars for the brutal rape and murder of the French student, who was left for dead in a Brisbane park in 2014.

Benjamin James Milward was sentenced to life in jail in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday, with a non-parole period of 20 years, for the random assault on the 21-year-old.

Ms Collombet was walking home from university on the night of March 27, 2014 when the ice-addled Milward violently raped her and left her to die on a bench from horrific head injuries.

Justice Ann Lyons condemned Milward's "cowardly and predatory" attack on the defenceless student in Kurilpa Point Park, next to the Brisbane River.

"Nothing can ever diminish the enormity of your appalling actions on that night," she said in sentencing the 28-year-old.

"She was a young woman far from home on an adventure in another country - you ended that."