The Dunedin cleaner who killed his boss in a brutal hammer attack was today jailed for at least 12 years.

Alexander James William Merritt killed 51-year-old Karin Ann Ross in the car park of Spotless Cleaning, where the pair worked.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years when he appeared in the Dunedin High Court this morning.

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