A sadistic sex killer who stabbed to death his on-off girlfriend and her sister in a "brutal and depraved" attack was convicted of murder today.

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court took three hours and 20 minutes to convict Mohammed Ali of murdering Yasmine and Sabrina Larbi-Cherif, whose partially-clothed bodies were found at their blood-drenched flat last September.

A two-week trial was told that Ali, a 29-year-old of Old Snow Hill, Birmingham, used three knives to stab Yasmine twice and inflict 35 separate knife wounds on her sister, leaving behind a scene of carnage.

Family and friends of Yasmine, 22, and Sabrina, 19, sobbed and hugged in the public gallery as the verdicts were returned.

Ali, who was not in court, will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutor David Crigman QC said the sisters' mother had found the trial so distressing that she had returned to the family home in London and was not present in court today.

The lawyer requested time for the family to "consider the position" and prepare victim statements for the judge before sentencing.

The trial heard that Ali had been in a relationship with Yasmine before killing her and Sabrina.

Mr Crigman said he stabbed both women in the lounge of their central Birmingham flat before dragging their bodies into a bedroom, leaving a "swathe" of blood on the floor.

Jurors, who watched CCTV film of Ali leaving the Jupiter Apartments in Ryland Street, Birmingham, following the killings, heard that he twice walked from the lounge of the flat to the kitchen to rearm himself after breaking two of the knives he used.