A Delta, B.C., man who pleaded guilty to killing and decapitating his 2½-year-old daughter in January 2008 will have to spend 11 years behind bars before becoming eligible for parole.

Lakhvinder Kahlon, 48, sat quietly beside a Punjabi translator in a New Westminster courtroom on Friday as B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman read the sentence.

Kahlon was on trial for first-degree murder, but on Monday he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder, for which he received an automatic life sentence.

A psychiatrist had testified during the trial that the father of three daughters had been severely depressed for a number of years.

The judge said Friday he had considered Kahlon was suffering a profound mental illness in deciding his parole eligibility.

The Crown had recommended Kahlon be jailed for 12 to 13 years before becoming eligible to apply for parole, while the defence had asked for 10 years.

Meanwhile, the Crown has released a disturbing recording of Kahlon's 911call about the killing:

• Operator: "Where is your daughter?"
• Kahlon: "I killed her already."
• Operator: "You killed her? When did you kill her?"
• Kahlon: "Right now."
• Operator: "Right now you just did it? What did you do to her?"
• Kahlon: "I just cut her neck with a knife."
• Operator: "You put a knife to her neck?
• Kahlon: "Yeah. That's why, come to arrest me."

During his trial, the court heard Kahlon was alone with his daughter Rajvinder, who was watching a TV show, in their Delta home. His wife had taken their two older daughters, aged 13 and 10, to school.

Kahlon strangled the little girl, then took her to the kitchen, where he stabbed and decapitated her.