A 35-year-old south Wales man is beginning a life sentence after being found guilty of murdering Cardiff shipping clerk Geraldine Palk in a "frenzied" knife attack.

The jury at Bristol Crown Court took almost three days to deliver their verdict on Mark Hampson, from Taffs Well, near Cardiff, who had denied killing the 26-year-old shipping clerk just before Christmas in 1990.

Hampson: In prison when DNA tested

Hampson showed little emotion as the verdict was read out while Ms Palk's family broke down and comforted each other.

The judge Mrs Justice Hallett described Hampson as "vicious and violent man who'd not the slightest hint of remorse".

Hampson's conviction ends almost 12 years of police investigations into one of the most baffling murders in south Wales.

The court heard he had started his criminal career before he was a teenager and has spent a total of 15 years in prison.

He was arrested last summer on release from Dartmoor Prison where he had been serving a four year sentence for violent crime.

Ms Palk had spent the evening of 21 December 1990 with friends at an office party in the city centre, but never returned home.

When her body was found the following morning, just yards from her home in Fairwater, it was discovered she had been raped and stabbed repeatedly.

Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting, had told the court that carpet fitter Hampson had threatened Ms Palk with a knife and forced her to walk to nearby playing fields where he made her strip.

"He then sexually assaulted her and murdered her in a frenzied attack, stabbing and slashing her body more than 80 times," he said.

The jury was told how people living around the playing fields heard "a horrible, single, female scream".

Mr Harrington said wounds to her hands showed she had tried to fight off her attacker, but it was thought she had died a short time after she was struck on the head.

The body was found near Fairwater Leisure Centre

Her body had then been dragged from the centre of the field - where the attack took place - to a stream near Fairwater Leisure Centre where a 11-year-old boy found it the following day.

"She had been the subject of a brutal, punishing and sustained attack. There were a number of grotesque features of that fatal killing," he said.

The prosecution said Hampson had lied about how his semen stain was found on the victim, after the defendant claimed he had a casual sexual encounter with a woman on the night of the murder.

Mr Harrington also said the defendant had lied about a bite wound to his genitalia, which had been treated at Cardiff Royal Infirmary.

Hampson had told hospital staff his wife had inflicted the injury, but he was not even married, the jury was told.

"It was that [attack] perhaps which caused the violent, knife-wielding rapist to commit murder," Mr Harrington told the court.

The defence team sought to discredit Miss Palk's character, highlighting her personal relationships.

Geraldine Palk's body was found in a shallow stream

The victim's sister Alison Lichfield - acting as a defence witness - said Miss Palk had a string of casual relationships in 1990 after she broke up with a long-term boyfriend the previous year.

Ms Lichfield "expressed her disapproval" toward her sister, who had been described as "friendly, lively and outgoing". In the decade that followed Ms Palk's death, detectives took DNA samples from 5,000 men in one of the largest screening programmes ever undertaken by a British police force.

Eventually, random DNA swabbing at Dartmoor Prison led them to Hampson, who was serving a four-year sentence for assault.

He was arrested by detectives from Cardiff as he left the prison and was driven away for questioning.

Despite damning forensic evidence, Hampson continually denied the murder.

Tests showed that the likelihood of someone else being responsible was one in a billion.

Tragic events

Ms Palk's death was the first in a series of tragic events for the Palk family.

Her mother Cynthia Palk, 61, died after being knocked down by a car as she walked past the spot where the body was found.

Neighbours said the retired nurse had never got over her daughter's brutal death. The following year, Mrs Palk's husband Les died from cancer.

Joan Brinkworth, a friend who played baseball with Ms Palk, said relatives never recovered from the loss.

"He killed her family - not just Geraldine. Her mother, particularly, never came to terms with it at all.

"I'm glad that somebody has been caught for the murder, but really it's too late.

"Her mother and father will never see justice."

The officer who led the South Wales Police inquiry, Detective Chief Superintendent Wynne Phillips, said the case showed the importance of sticking with an investigation.

"Today brings to an end more than 11 years of heart ache and pain for the relatives of Geraldine," he said.

"I pay tribute to their courage and resolve throughout two harrowing and complex police investigations. Their dignity throughout is a tribute to them.

"It is unfortunate that it took a long time despite our continued commitment - modern policing methods and new forensic technology were vital.

"The final message from me is that this case reinforces the theory 'never give up'.

"The public deserve this and more so the family of Geraldine. It is sad that Geraldine's parents are not alive to witness some consolation in regard to their daughters tragic death."