The Qatari man convicted of killing a British teacher and burning her body got his death sentence mitigated to under five years, The National Reported. 

Lauren Patterson, 24, was brutally killed in October 2013 following a night out in Doha.

Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah Al Jabr was found guilty and sentenced to death for the killing.

He had stabbed Lauren, who was working at the Newton British School in the Qatari capital, before attempting to dispose of her body by burning it on charcoal bricks in the desert. Her badly-burned remains were discovered shortly afterwards and were identified through DNA testing.

The death sentence, handed down in 2014, was later quashed and a retrial ordered, following an appeals process, but the original verdict and sentence was reimposed in 2017.

However, at a further hearing at the Qatari appeal court, held on Monday, the sentence was reduced to just 10 years in jail, according to Alison Patterson, Lauren’s mother.

The time Al Jabr has already served behind bars will be taken into account, she said, meaning he has already served half of his new sentence.