A Grade 12 student confessed to strangling his girlfriend out of fear she would leave him, and burning her body to conceal his crime, Phitsanulok police said on Tuesday.

Police on Friday secured a court approval to detain a 30-year-old Chachoengsao man for an initial 12 days after he surrendered a day earlier to face charges for allegedly assaulting and setting his 35-year-old girlfriend on fire in a fit of jealous rage.