Husband jailed for killing wife

The judge described Alisdair Sinclair as "egotistical" and "self absorbed"

A man who killed his Vodafone executive wife after she admitted to an affair has been jailed for nine years.

Sally Sinclair, 40, was found with more than 30 stab wounds and a partially severed head at her home in Amport, Hampshire, in August 2008.

Alisdair Sinclair, 48, was cleared of murder, but convicted of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility by a jury at Winchester Crown Court.

The judge said Sinclair had "exploded in a frenzy of brutality".

Judge Guy Boney QC told Sinclair, originally from Inverness, that he had slaughtered his wife after hearing of her affair.

Calling him egotistical and self absorbed, the judge said Mrs Sinclair had done everything she could to support and help her husband through his depressive illness until she could take no more.

Carotid artery

Det Sgt Sarah Simpson, of Hampshire Constabulary, said outside court: "A successful career woman had her life tragically and prematurely cut short and her family now have to lead their lives without her.

"Nothing can ever compensate for that."

During the trial, Winchester Crown Court heard Sinclair had been a house husband for almost 10 years while his wife worked. She was head of business analysis at Vodafone when she died.

Sally Sinclair was head of business analysis at Vodafone

The jury heard their marriage had been strained for months over his "controlling and reclusive behaviour" which had left his wife with no bank account of her own, despite being the breadwinner.

Sinclair, formerly of Georgia Lane, Amport, had admitted he and his wife were involved in a knife fight in which she died on 16 August 2008.

He admitted killing her in the kitchen of their luxury £1m rented home but said he had been attacked and stabbed by his wife and thought he was dying.

The attack was part-witnessed by children, the court heard.

Sinclair had told the court the wounds he had inflicted on his wife were "beyond self defence" but he could not remember inflicting most of them.

Jurors had been told Sinclair attempted to cut off his wife's head, cutting through her carotid artery and her spinal cord.