Pizzas galore!

Sarah Forshaw QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “The time was fast approaching when she was going to leave him.

“That night, when the children were upstairs asleep, he killed her. He arranged her dead body on the floor. He went out to the garage where he kept petrol cans for the lawnmower.

“He poured petrol over, particularly over her head and her neck and he set fire to her.

“He was particularly anxious that he may have left signs around her that identified himself as her strangler. He expected the fire to take hold immediately and for the house to go up in flames. The fire never really took hold.”

A post-mortem later showed that Ms Wilson had inhaled no smoke and concluded she had died before the fire was started.

Jailing him today, Judge Martyn Zeidman told the killer he had “imposed a life sentence of weeping” on his partner’s parents and caused a “devastating blow” to his children.

He said: “You have done a wicked act, murdering the mother of your own young children.

“At the time of the murder they were just seven and three. They have been told that their mother is in heaven.”

The court heard that the youngest child still asks her grandmother: “Can I get mummy on the phone?”

“How do you explain to a child of that age that they will never see mummy again?” the judge asked Jermey.

“Kirsty was an utterly exceptional person. She was kind, vibrant, beautiful, honest, very sociable and with a great sense of humour.

“She will be missed desperately by all who had the privilege of knowing her. You have done a terrible thing. You were under prolonged stress, living with someone who was in the process of separating from you - a separation that Kirsty was perfectly entitled to make.

“Kirsty in her kindness wanted to avoid hurting your feelings and of course it was a difficult situation. It provides some degree of mitigation but it should not be overstated. It is a sad fact of life that relationships do come to an end and couples do separate.”

The judge said the crime was aggravated by the fact that there was clearly some premeditation, as shown by the removal of a smoke alarm before the murder.

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