The killer of Irish student Karen Buckley abandoned a legal bid to have his life sentence cut after his mother told him to.

Alexander Pacteau was jailed for a minimum of 23 years last September after admitting bludgeoning 24-year-old Ms Buckley to death with a spanner in April and trying to dissolve her body in a bath full of chemicals.

Pacteau planned to appeal his life sentence in a bid to have the 23-year jail term reduced, however in December he instructed his legal team to drop the appeal two days before it was due to be heard in court.

It has now emerged the murderer abandoned the legal bid after his mother told him to "out of respect" for Ms Buckley's family.

Pacteau's mother, Noreen Dow, told the Irish Star: "He dropped it, he had to out of respect."

Her partner Tommy also told the paper: "We both went in and we asked him to drop it. I don't think he can appeal it again."

The former public schoolboy lured the occupational therapy student from a nightclub in the west end of Glasgow to his car which was parked round the corner.

He then bludgeoned the young student to death in his car before driving back to his flat, carrying her lifeless body inside and dumping her in a bath full of caustic soda in a bid to dissolve her body.

The killer then went to a hardware store to buy a large barrel. He put her body inside before driving to a farm in East Dunbartonshire and dumping the container.

The Irish Star also revealed that Pacteau's mother has been visiting him at Shotts Prison since he was sentenced.

Tommy added: "Prison is prison, I haven't seen him much. It's more his mother that sees him."

Pacteau had originally faced a second charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by misleading police and trying to conceal Ms Buckley's body.

The Crown withdrew the charge before his plea and his solicitor John Scullion QC suggested his actions after the killing should not therefore be regarded when considering sentence.

But Lady Rae said she could not ignore Pacteau's conduct following Ms Buckley's death.

Judge Lady Rae said he had carried out a "brutal, senseless and motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman" as she sentenced him for murder at the High Court in Glasgow earlier this month.

Ms Buckley, who was studying for a masters degree in occupational health therapy at Glasgow Caledonian University, was on a night out to the Sanctuary nightclub in the wet end when she was preyed on by Pacteau.

In the early hours of April 12, he was captured on CCTV chatting to her outside the nightclub.

He then drove her to nearby Kelvin Way, where he grabbed her neck and delivered about a dozen blows with a spanner.

He took her body to his flat where he stored it in the bath and in the days that followed made trips to High Craigton Farm on the outskirts of Glasgow where he burned a mattress and clothes.

Pacteau purchased caustic soda and a barrel and placed Ms Buckley's body inside before leaving it in a locked storage unit he rented.

He initially claimed to detectives, who identified him from CCTV footage, that they had consensual sex at his flat and she had fallen and injured herself on the bed frame before leaving.

Ms Buckley's parents John and Marian Buckley have said they hope the "truly evil coward" is never released from jail.