SHE was the girl who saw the good in everyone – and it cost Julie Bywater her life.

The 32-year-old was a sociable, popular teaching assistant, working with autistic children at Linwood School in Charminster.

Friends remembered her infectious laugh on nights out and her love for her job.

She told them how she wanted to settle down and start a family with someone special and talked of a wedding at Highcliffe Castle.

When Ms Bywater started a diploma in massage techniques at Bournemouth and Poole College in September 2009, she met Alan Pickersgill.

The former carpenter was looking for a new direction after he was put out of work following an industrial accident. The pair got on well and became practice partners, visiting each other’s houses for coursework.

Soon, the relationship escalated into more than just homework and the couple were soon booking a holiday together to Dubai.

The romance fizzled out soon after, though, with an ex-boyfriend of Ms Bywater’s still playing on her mind.

She told Pickersgill their relationship was over – but that she wanted to remain good friends.

Detective Sergeant Phil Swanton said: “Julie was a kind, caring girl and was still on friendly terms with most of her ex-boyfriends. She didn’t see this as any different from that.” It was, however, very different. Pickersgill, who said he had fallen in love with Ms Bywater, could not accept the split and began to develop a disturbing obsession.

He fitted a tracking device to her car and accessed her Facebook, checking it several times a day. Private messages sent by Ms Bywater to a friend, describing how she no longer had feelings for Pickersgill, were later found saved on his laptop under the filename, God Help Me.

DS Swanton said: “He became aware that things were not going so well and became quite obsessed with tracking her movements and checking on what she was doing.” Unaware of Pickersgill’s behaviour and rising jealously over her contact with other men, Julie remained friendly and agreed to massage practice.

On May 3, after a day trip to Salisbury for Pickersgill’s birthday, the pair practised massage at his Southbourne flat. Pickersgill had CCTV installed at his home, partially for security, he said, though he admitted a camera in the toilet was to feed his fantasies for sexy lingerie. That evening, the cameras were switched on throughout, picking up nothing sexual or sinister.

The following night, Ms Bywater returned for more course practice but soon after she arrived the cameras were switched off.

Just after 11pm that night, Pickersgill left his mum an answerphone message saying things had gone “awfully wrong” and he’d killed Julie.

He then deleted both his and Ms Bywater’s Facebook accounts and removed the tracking device from her car.

She was found strangled with a plastic cable tie the next morning, with Pickersgill beside her having taken a suspected overdose.

DS Swanton said: “Our thoughts are it’s a classic case of ‘If I can’t have her, nobody will’. The evidence of his obsessive nature is so overwhelming in terms of the actions that he took with Julie.”