Husband cleared of murder charge

London: A jealous husband who stabbed his wife more than 30 times could be out of prison in just three years, despite the judge likening the killing to a 'slaughter'.

Alisdair Sinclair, 48, was found guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility but cleared of murdering his wife Sally.

On Saturday, he was sentenced to nine years but could be released on licence in three years.

Sinclair attacked his 40-year-old wife with kitchen knives after confronting her over an affair, and even attempted to saw her head off with a bread knife.

The verdict has angered campaigners and the victim's relatives, who want to stop men using their wives' infidelity as a partial defence for murder.

Sinclair launched the deadly attack on his wife, a successful Vodafone executive, at the £1 million (Dh6 million) home they shared in Amport, Hampshire, in August last year.

She had told him weeks earlier that she no longer loved him and wanted a divorce. The couple had been married for 21 years.

He later realised she was having an affair when he found a note she had written to another man, saying: "I lust after you."

The former computer consultant flew at her in the kitchen and used several knives to inflict terrible injuries, while she pleaded for mercy.

Sinclair handed himself in to police, but claimed he had acted in self-defence after his wife attacked him with a knife.

Statement

Sentencing, Guy Boney QC said the house-husband was a selfish, egotistical and controlling man who had suffered from moderate to severe depression.

He said Sinclair had tried to support her husband through his depressive illness, until she could take no more.

After the sentence, Sinclair's mother Nicolette Alford said: "This has devastated us."

Equalities minister Harriet Harman wanted to change the law to stop men escaping with a charge of manslaughter if their wife had been having an affair, but the House of Lords defeated the proposal.