A 30-year-old Pakistani man here has been sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing to death his European wife after she refused to help him secure British residency.
Jamshaid Khan, before stabbing 14 times his Bulgarian wife Milena Yulianova, had tried to find other eastern European women on Facebook to help his residency bid by claiming that Yulianova had died in a car crash.
Khan had repeatedly failed in his "desperate" attempts to be allowed to stay in the UK despite his marriage to European citizen Yulianova, 27, the guardian reported yesterday.
When she refused to help his latest bid for permanent residency, he stabbed her 14 times at his home in Forest Gate, east London, in January last year, the court heard.
Khan denied murder and claimed that he had acted in self- defence after his wife of 15 months produced the knife during a row. But the jury found him guilty of murder at the Old Bailey in London on Monday.
Khan must serve a minimum of 20 years. Sentencing him yesterday, judge Stephen Kramer QC said, "I am satisfied you are a manipulative, devious and deceitful man who wriggled and writhed your way through the trial".
"Whether or not the marriage was a marriage of convenience and a sham from the outset, I am satisfied by 2013 you wanted Milena's help to further your application for permanent residency in this country.
"While the marriage existed in 2014, you were already looking for other eastern European women who you thought could help. You were chatting with them on Facebook. You told one of the women on Facebook that Milena had died in a car accident. Those conversations indicate you were already contemplating you might feel the need to replace her," the judge said.
As a result of his murder conviction, he is likely to be deported to Pakistan upon his release.
