A poacher who blasted two police officers to death during a routine traffic stop in Germany has been sentenced to life behind bars.

The district court of Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate, handed the sentence to Andreas Johannes S., 39, on 30th November after finding him guilty of double murder.

Andreas had been stopped by chief inspector Alexander K., 29, and rookie policewoman Yasmin B., 24, near Ulmet, Kusel district, on 31st January.

Prosecutors said he had shot Yasmin in the head at close range before turning his gun on Alexander, hitting him in the buttock.

Alexander had then returned fire but Andreas had then shot him “three times with a hunting rifle and seriously injured him each time”.

The last, fatal shot had hit him in the head.

Prosecutors said Andreas had then searched Yasmin for her notebook but realised she was still alive.

He had then “fired another shot at her head with the shotgun”, finishing her off.

Prosecutors believe Andreas killed the police officers so they would not find out that he and his companion Florian V., then aged 32, had been hunting illegally.

A subsequent search of their van had found it to be loaded with 22 deer carcasses.

Prosecutors believed Andreas “essentially made his living from poaching and selling the prey” and that he killed the officers so he could continue plying his illicit trade unhindered.

Andreas’s lawyer had unsuccessfully argued during the trial that her client was not guilty of murder but instead of ‘maximum bodily harm resulting in death’.

Presiding judge Raphael Mall said he hoped the harsh sentence would help the victims’ loved ones deal with their grief.

The verdict is not yet legally binding.

The court found Florian, now aged 33, guilty of complicity in commercial poaching but decided not to punish him because he had co-operated with the investigation, providing “considerable mitigating and essential educational help”.