A 31-YEAR-OLD Lancaster University student who stabbed his lover to death after she refused to perform oral sex on him has been jailed for life.

Preston Crown Court was told that after the killing, Syrian born Rateb Raslan informed security staff that there was a body in his room.

Raslan, who resided at Furness College at the university, pleaded guilty to murdering fellow student, mother-of-two Lorraine Price, 44, on June 18 last year.

His case had been listed for trial a year to the day of the murder but Raslan had changed his plea to guilty.

Judge Peter Openshaw QC told him: "In my judgement your victim Lorraine Price had done nothing to provoke you either in law or in fact. She had shown you nothing but kindness.

"The sentence I must pass for this brutal, merciless and wicked murder is laid down by law -- life imprisonment."

Peter Birkett QC prosecuting, told the court Raslan was studying a masters degree in contemporary literary studies.

Miss Price, who had a 14 year-old daughter and a son in his 20s was native of Bridgend in South Wales and had returned to education late in life. She had spent a year at Ruskin College, Oxford, before studying at Lancaster.

She was "happy, bubbly and the life and soul of the party. She was a strong, independently minded woman," said Mr Birkett.

He said they met in October 1999 at a university disco and had an on-off relationship.

They had opposite personalities, she being independent and modern while he had a traditional background with little experience of women and not having many relationships in the past.

On June 17 2000 Miss Price had been working and had met Raslan at the university at 9pm. They had a drink and then bought a bottle of wine and went back to Raslan's room. At 1am a neighbour heard a banging and a short scream.

"After the killing, the defendant remained in his room brooding about matters for some hours.

"He left at 2.50am and said to a friend 'any worst point in life is when you don't feel close to the people you love or the people who love you or they don't feel close to you."

Raslan then went to a security officer and raised the alarm at 3.30am. He said there was a woman in his room who was dead.

Mr Birkett said Raslan had stabbed Miss Price repeatedly with: "Some force and determination." She had been found fully dressed in a kneeling position over Raslan's bed. She was about to leave when she was stabbed.

She sustained approximately 16 stab wounds to various areas of her body. A significant number were to her back and lower back. They were into the depth of some 15 cm -- the length of the blade of the knife Raslan used.

When interviewed, Raslan admitted his responsibility and described the events that had lead to the stabbing.

"He performed a sex act on her and requested that she perform the same on him.

"She had refused. He felt insulted and angry to the point it was quite clear the defendant must have gone from his room to the kitchen, picked up the knife and returned," Mr Birkett said.

Raslan explained he had acted out that which he had read in a number of books.

The book Season of Migration to the North was in Raslan's possession. A man had killed his English wife by stabbing during sex.

Raslan also referred to another book, Crime and Punishment, and explained the books as a factor in why he had killed Miss Price.

Mr David Fish QC, defending, said Raslan was an 'intelligent and articulate man' who had a high level of academic achievement.

He formed a relationship with Miss Price that was intense on the one hand and volatile on the other.

Raslan had been asked to do something that he found abhorrent. When there was a refusal from Miss Price to do something similar he lost his temper and stabbed her, said Mr Fish. He came from a starkly different culture and found rejection difficult to deal with. Raslan was full of remorse and was sorry for what happened.