An oil rig worker has been jailed for life after stabbing his girlfriend to death in what a judge called a “brutal, vicious” attack.

Mother-of-one Gillian Andrade, 39, was killed by 31-year-old Daniel Hodges, who stabbed her twice in the back after a night out in July last year.

He admitted murdering her at the house in Churchfields, Loughton, where he was living with two friends, after the couple had been drinking at Fifteen and Nu Bar in the town.

The court heard that the couple had met last spring, but Hodges, who had a history of violence towards previous girlfriends, had grown increasingly jealous and flipped after seeing a text message he thought was from Miss Andrade’s gym instructor, who he mistakenly believed she was having an affair with.

During his sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court this afternoon, a voicemail message of Miss Andrade pleading with Hodges during the last minutes of her life way played.

On the message, Hodges can be heard saying: “You’re the last love of my life. You was my last love.”

Karim Khalil, prosecuting, said: “It’s plain that it records Gillian’s fears for herself and her daughter.

“She calls as if to her little girl and calls for help and says ‘no’.”

After killing Miss Andrade, Hodges attempted to make it look as if she had attacked him, making cuts on his neck as he stood at the bathroom sink, moving her body and placing the knife he used to stab her in her hands.

But Mr Khalil said: “Any suggestion he was defending himself from her is plainly preposterous.”

He described Miss Andrade, who had a nine-year-old daughter, as a 5ft 6in woman who kept herself slim and Hodges as 6ft and “very muscular.”

Peter Rowlands, mitigating, said Hodges had suffered abuse as a child and had mental health issues.

Jailing him for life with a minimum term of 17 and a half years, judge Charles Gratwicke said: “Those close to her have been left with an un-fillable void and no-one who sat in this court this afternoon and listened to that recording can feel anything but shock and horror.

“This was a brutal, vicious and sustained attack.”