A British man has pleaded guilty to murdering Irish vet Catherine Gowing, who was reported missing last October in Wales.

On Monday, Clive Sharp, 46, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to Gowing’s murder at Mold Crown Court. Mr Justice Griffith-Williams warned the accused he may never be released from jail.

Read More: Police discover human remains in two sites while searching for Catherine Gowing

The judge told Sharp: “There is only one sentence I can pass on you for this offence, as you will know.

“I have to work out what the minimum term you will serve is before the Parole Board consider you for release – if you are ever to be released.”

Originally from Clonee, Co. Offaly, the alarm was raised after the 37-year-old Gowing failed to show up for work.

The Irish woman was last seen on Friday 12 October at a supermarket near her home in New Brighton, Flintshire, North Wales. Her murder is said to have taken place between October 11 and 17, 2012.

Her body has yet to be recovered although remains were found at two rural locations near her home in Flintshire, north Wales, and near Chester.

More than 300 people attended her funeral in Kinnitty, Offaly on January 3rd, reports the BBC.

In her eulogy her sister, Emma, told mourners Catherine was "the closest person to perfection that I had the privilege to know and love."

She said she had been a "wonderful daughter" to their parents, and described her as "a gift from God."

"She was beautiful in beauty's truest form, a soul filled with goodness," she added.

Sharp is due to be sentenced on 25 February.