Qatari gets death for killing UK teacher

A man who raped, stabbed and burned a 24-year-old British teacher in the Arab emirate of Qatar has been sentenced to death by a Doha court.

A second man was jailed for three years for helping to dispose of her body.

Lauren Patterson's smouldering remains were found by campers in a remote desert location near Doha last October after Badr Khamis Abdullah Hashim and his accomplice Mohammed Hasan Abdulaziz, both Qatari nationals, tried to burn the teacher's body to erase any evidence, the court found.

Patterson, who taught at a primary school in Doha, was last seen alive leaving the night club of a luxury hotel with two men.

Her mother, Alison Patterson, dropped her head in her hands and let out a brief sob in court today as the sentences were handed down, the MailOnline reports.

She reportedly was supported by more than a dozen family and friends in the courtroom.

The mother expressed satisfaction at the death sentence passed on Abdullah Hashim, saying in a statement issued in London that "justice has been served".

But she criticised as "inadequate" the three-year jail term handed down to Hasan Abdulaziz.

"(He) was an accomplice to Lauren's murder and he was aware of what had happened. At no time did he choose to help my daughter or report the murder.

"In fact he did the contrary; he helped (Abdullah Hashim) dispose of Lauren's body in the most callous and barbaric way," she said, adding, "Three years does not seem to reflect the magnitude of this crime."

According to rights group Death Penalty Worldwide, the last judicial killing in Qatar was in 2003, when a murderer was executed by firing squad.