PIO man who killed wife for gay lover jailed for life in UK

London: An Indian-origin pharmacist was sentenced to life imprisonment by a UK court on Wednesday for murdering his wife to use a two-million pound life insurance payout to build a new life with his gay lover in Australia.

Mitesh Patel, 37, was told that he must serve a minimum term of 30 years behind bars before being considered for parole over the murder of Jessica Patel, who was found dead at the couple's home in Middlesborough, northern England, in May.

He had denied killing his wife and claimed that she was a victim of a burglary at their home. However, the prosecution proved that Patel staged a burglary scene after injecting his 34-year-old wife with insulin and then strangling her with a plastic supermarket shopping bag.

"You have no remorse for your actions. Any pity you have is for yourself," said Justice James Goss, during a sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday.

In a statement on behalf of Jessica's family, her grieving younger sister Divya told the court: "The one thing we hope and prayed for above anything else was that in her final moments she did not suffer".

"The cruel reality is that she did in fact suffer, she knew exactly who her killer was, and he mercilessly ignored her attempts to fight for her own life as he ended it.

"We can only imagine the fear and panic she must have felt knowing herself this was it. Thinking of that moment makes our hearts so heavy," she said.

According to court reports, she then addressed her brother-in-law directly to say that her sister would finally be free of him 'forever'.