'Freezer killing' husband jailed

Dalton said he lashed out at his wife in a panic

A teacher who killed his wife then cut up her body and hid it in a freezer has been jailed for five years.

Paul Dalton, 35, from Kingston, south-west London, said he punched Tae Hui during a row. He later found her dead, having choked on her own blood.

The Old Bailey heard Mr Dalton suffered years of provocation and his wife had been taunting him over an affair.

He was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter. The judge told him he had committed an "horrific offence".

He said: "You lashed out at your wife in the course of an argument and, in my judgement, after no little taunting on her part.

'Scared of her'

"The blow was spontaneous. You did not intend to kill her but it was a hefty blow of sufficient force to fracture her jaw in two places."

Dalton said his Korean-born wife, with whom he ran a language school in Kingston, had tormented him for years and told him she only married him for the visa.

"I was scared of her. Everyone was scared of her," he told the jury.

Dalton's parents found the body at his home in south-west London

During the row in May 2004, he said she lunged at him and he hit her in a blind panic.

The prosecution had alleged Dalton deliberately left his 38-year-old wife to die.

But he said he went upstairs after hitting her and returned to find her dead where he left her, with blood coming out of her mouth. The cause of death was inhalation of blood.

He later bought an electric saw, a bow saw and dust sheets, chopped the body into nine pieces and hid them in the fridge freezer in the kitchen.

Dalton was traced by police to Japan after his parents visited his home and found the body.

He was jailed for two years for the manslaughter and three years for preventing the burial.