Wife murderer jailed for life

A retired businessman was jailed for life yesterday after being found guilty of murdering his wife when she discovered he had squandered their life savings.

Maurice Pearson, 57, showed no emotion as the jury at Bournemouth Crown Court found him guilty of killing his wife, Irena, at their £400,000 home on 13 February.

Mr Pearson, a former IT manager at Barclays Bank, had denied hitting his wife over the head 15 times with a blunt object in the kitchen of their home in Broadstone, Poole, Dorset. He had claimed an intruder must have done it.

The jury heard that Pearson had kept from his wife the fact that he had lost £44,000 during a year of trading in stocks and shares over the internet.

Deputy High Court Judge Sir Ian Kennedy, who said Pearson must serve 14 years and five months before becoming eligible for parole, said the resultant tragedy was one entirely of his own making. He told him: "In that tragedy I include the utter blighting of your children's lives."