Man convicted of murdering girlfriend in Britain jailed for assaulting partner in New Zealand

Victim staying with John Mark Turner, witness statement suggests

Rachel McLean with her boyfriend John Tanner (PA/PA Archive/PA Images)

A man imprisoned in the UK for more than 11 years for murdering his girlfriend and hiding her body beneath the floorboards has been jailed in New Zealand after assaulting a new partner.

John Mark Tanner abused his most recent girlfriend a number of times over a six-month period, including using his hands to restrict her breathing on one occasion.

He was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison on Tuesday for his crimes against her, according to The New Zealand Herald.

In 1991, Tanner strangled his 19-year-old girlfriend, Rachel McLean, a student at Oxford University, and hid her body under the floor of her flat.

Rachel McLean was murdered at the age of 19 by her then-boyfriend John Mark Tanner (PA/PA Archive/PA Image)

A tutor raised the alarm when she failed to turn up for an exam and a search was launched by police.

At the time, Tanner claimed the last time he saw McLean was when she had seen him off at Oxford railway station, and said a stranger had offered her a lift home.

Tanner appeared in a television broadcast appealing for information about her whereabouts, but later confessed to the killing.

John Tanner (centre), 22, the boyfriend of missing Oxford undergraduate Rachel McLean, at a news conference in Oxford (Sean Dempsey/PA Archive/PA Images)

During his trial at Birmingham Crown Court, Tanner said McLean had told him she wanted to end the relationship and had been unfaithful.

“I flew at her in a rage and proceeded to put my hands around her neck,” Tanner told police at the time.

“I think I must have lost control, because I have only a vague recollection of the time that elapsed afterwards.

“I am bewildered why I have done such a terrible thing to a person I love dearly.”

The high-profile case was re-enacted in the 2004 documentary Love You to Death.

In the latest case, Tanner argued with his girlfriend while she was staying at a motel in the town of Whanganui, according to the Herald. He straddled her on the bed while slapping and punching her head with a closed fist, before leaving.

Several hours later, when Tanner’s partner sent a text telling him the relationship was over, he went back to her hotel, ripped her clothes off and demanded sex. He then hit her several times in the head.

Despite the assaults, a victim impact statement indicated the victim wanted the relationship to continue and said she wanted Tanner to get help with his anger issues, the Herald reported.

The judge said that during a different argument, the partner said she was leaving Tanner and he replied that she would not and that he would kill her.

“She did not take the threat seriously,” the judge said.

Press Association contributed to this report