The man who brutally murdered pregnant schoolgirl Rhiana Moore was yesterday ordered by the Chief Justice to spend 35 years in jail before he can be considered for parole.

However, Rhiana's grieving grandmother reacted by saying that "they should bring back hanging".

And at the very least, Brenda Wainwright wants 33-year-old Ze Selassie to die in jail.

She told The Royal Gazette: "He should never get any parole. He killed my granddaughter and she was pregnant with his baby. He should never get out of jail at all. I feel that he can rot in jail. She was my first granddaughter and I really miss her very much."

Selassie lured 14-year-old Rhiana away from a church youth group meeting last May, before stabbing her 18 times and dumping her body in the sea. It took a Supreme Court jury just over three hours on August 20 to find the father-of-two guilty of premeditated murder.

Chief Justice Richard Ground immediately proclaimed that Selassie must serve a life sentence. However, submissions from the lawyers over exactly how many years Selassie should serve was reserved until yesterday due to complex legal points that needed to be debated.

Up until the Chief Justice's ruling yesterday, the mandatory minimum for premeditated murder was 25 years behind bars. However, a recent ruling in the Cooper twins case saw the power to set sentence length taken out of the hands of lawmakers and put in the hands of judges.

Yesterday, for the first time in a premeditated murder case, Mr. Justice Richard Ground ordered that Selassie ought to serve at least ten years longer than that before he can be considered for parole (see separate story.)

He explained that one of the factors he took into account was that a vulnerable young pregnant girl was the victim. Selassie's motive for the crime was his desire to cover up the fact that Rhiana was pregnant with his child as the result of illegal sexual relations with her when she was underage.

However, no charges were pressed against him relating to the fact that he also killed his unborn baby. The law in Bermuda states that an unborn child must be "viable" which means capable of survival outside the womb before someone can be charged with killing it. The Royal Gazette understands from sources close to the case that experts were consulted over whether the baby which was at 27-30 weeks' gestation was viable. However, the decision was ultimately made that Selassie should not be charged with killing the baby because it was impossible to pin down its age sufficiently to say in law that it was viable.

Justice and human rights campaigner Carol Shuman called after the trial for Bermuda's law to be reformed so it would be easier to charge someone with the murder of an unborn child.

Rhiana's grandmother added her voice to that call yesterday, commenting: "The law should be changed."

The Chief Justice also pointed out another factor influencing the length of the sentence that Selassie was already a convicted rapist with a long history of crimes against women when he killed Rhiana. He subdued a female acquaintance of his with a noxious substance placed over her face before raping her in the cellar of her own home ten years ago. He was later jailed for six years, but released on parole just two years later.

Prior to that crime, he had been convicted of a string of offences against women, including prowling around women's' residences, assaulting a woman and trespassing in a woman's home.

However, Rhiana's mother, Julieann Moore, told the trial she was unaware of Rhiana's involvement with Selassie or her pregnancy by him. The case sparked calls from the Women's Resource Centre and Coalition for the Protection of Children for a sex offenders' register that is open for the public to see when convicts such as Selassie are released into the community.

Rhiana's mother did not attend yesterday's court hearing because she was off the Island. However her sister, Andrea Wainwright attended along with their mother Brenda Wainwright. She backed the calls for a public sex offenders' register as she left, telling The Royal Gazette: "Looking at the previous conviction, he was out in two years. It's obvious he wasn't rehabilitated. Bermuda needs a sex offenders' register."

She added that although she was glad that the Chief Justice went above and beyond the previous minimum sentence: "Life to me is life in prison."

In his other remarks during the sentencing, Mr. Justice Ground pointed out that Selassie "groomed" Rhiana as a victim over a prolonged period of time, lying to her that having sex with him and taking pills he had provided would get rid of their unwanted baby.

On the night of the murder, said the Chief Justice, Selassie set up a meeting with Rhiana in a deliberate attempt to "lure her" away from the safety of the church youth group. In addition, he pointed out that he inflicted 18 stab wounds upon his young victim. According to a forensic pathologist, it could have taken up to two hours for her to slowly bleed to death.

Selassie attempted to conceal the crime by dumping Rhiana's body in the sea, and disposing of her personal belongings such as her cell phone. In addition, said the judge, he showed no remorse after the killing denying responsibility throughout his trial.

Selassie, who has a five year old daughter and three year old son, declined an invitation to address the court before the Chief Justice made his ruling yesterday. He was in a relationship at the time of the murder, living with his girlfriend in St. David's and working as a construction foreman.

He has been held in solitary confinement in Westgate since he was convicted, while prison officials assess his physical and mental state. Sources say that, such is the outrage over the crime he committed, he may be at risk of attack from other prisoners.

Commissioner of Corrections Edward Lamb told our sister paper The Mid Ocean News this week that Selassie may have to be kept in the segregation unit after the assessment is completed, to protect him from the other inmates.

Prisoners in segregation have no contact with the general prison population and are kept in lockdown in their cells for at least 23 hours a day.