Mark Bridger will spend the rest of his life in prison after being handed a whole life tariff for the murder of five-year-old April Jones.
At Mold Crown Court Bridger, 47, of Ceinws, mid Wales, was handed the maximum sentence any judge can impose on a defendant.
Mark Bridger is the 37th person to be given a whole life tariff - a very rare sentence.
Judge Mr Justice Griffith-Williams described Bridger as a "pathological liar and a paedophile".
The judge said April's parents have had to endure Bridger's hypocritical sympathy for their loss as well as his tears.
He said Bridger was "on the prowl" and "set out to find a little girl" to abuse.
The judge also said Bridger had on his laptop "not only images of pre-pubescent and pubescent girls, but foul pornography of the gross sexual abuse of young children".
He added: "What prompted you on Monday 1 October to live out one of those fantasies is a matter for speculation, but it may have been a combination of the ending of one sexual relationship and your drinking."
The judge also said: "Your offences were aggravated by their premeditation and by the destruction of at least a part of her body and the concealment of the rest".
He went on: "It is also a relevant consideration that you not only abducted April with a sexual motive but then sexually abused her in some way".
Speaking outside the court this afternoon, April's mother Coral told the media: "April will be forever in our hearts and we are so moved by the overwhelming support".
Coral Jones thanked Dyfed Powys Police, the search teams, family liaison officers and the community of Machynlleth for their support. She also thanked the media for their sensitive reporting of April's story.
Meanwhile Det Supt Andrew John said: "This evil and manipulative individual will have his liberty taken away from him for the rest of his life".
He said the Jones family had "shown such enormous strength and dignity during the most difficult of times".
For the first time since the trial began, Coral and Paul Jones were sat in court in a place where they were able to see Mark Bridger when he was sentenced.
Prior to sentencing, the court heard a witness impact statement from April's mother Coral, read by Elwen Evans QC, prosecuting.
Coral Jones wrote: "I still cannot go into her bedroom to sort out her clothes because the pain of her not being there is indescribable.
"I broke my heart whilst writing Christmas cards and wondered if I should put April's name on it. In the end I put a pink ribbon on the card.
"As April's mother, I will live with the guilt of letting her go out to play that night for the rest of my life."
April's mother added: "Words alone cannot describe how we are feeling or how we manage to function on a daily basis. I would never, ever want any other family to go through what we are and will go through for the rest of our lives".
Bridger, a former lifeguard, was today found guilty of abducting and murdering five-year-old April.
A jury of nine women and three men took just over four hours to convict Bridger of abducting and murdering April, and of unlawfully disposing of and concealing her body with intent to pervert the course of justice.
Bridger denied murder. He claimed he accidentally ran April over and could not recall where he had put her body.
April disappeared while playing near her home on the Bryn-y-Gog estate in Machynlleth on October 1 last year, sparking the biggest search in UK police history.
When arrested the next day Bridger, a father of six, constructed a "web of lies" to cover up the abduction of April.
Fragments of bone consistent with a juvenile human skull were found in ashes in the wood burner, along with a number of knives nearby including one that was badly burned.
Bridger earlier claimed he could not remember how April's blood came to be found at his home and had no recollection of an "extensive clean-up operation" inside the cottage.
The Guardian today reports: "For the first time it can be revealed that Bridger, who is the son of a retired City of London police officer, told a priest while he was in prison awaiting trial that he had 'flung' April's body into a river.
"Detectives, however, have treated the apparent confession with caution and tend to think that after sexually assaulting April, he dismembered her body at his cottage, Mount Pleasant, in the village of Ceinws and disposed of the pieces in various remote places."
The prosecuting QC argued Bridger's motive for the assault was sexual. She highlighted child sex abuse images found on his computer and search terms including "naked young five-year-old girls", as well as pictures of murder victims including the Soham victims Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
In the hours leading up to April's abduction, Bridger had also approached a 10-year-old friend of his daughter's, asking her if she wanted to come for a sleepover sometime.
He had gone to a parent's evening at April's school, as had her parents Coral and Paul Jones.
The seven-month search for April's remains was called off last month. Her remains have never been found.
