A lower court sentenced a Canadian national to five years in prison Thursday for killing his girlfriend in 2009.

The 39-year-old man confessed earlier this year to drowning his girlfriend, surnamed Kim, then 21, in 2009 while they were taking a walk along the bank of the Han River in Yongsan.

He had initially told police that Kim drowned while trying to get a tennis ball from the river. The police then closed the case.

The man turned himself in in January saying to police that he had killed her after he had started to believe that she would hire someone to kill him.

The man is said to have suffered from paranoia. But the court said that his cognitive abilities and memories are intact.

(wone0102@heraldcorp.com)