Man jailed for life for stabbing wife to death

Rajveer Mahey initially told police he had acted in self-defence, but forensic evidence proved otherwise

A man has been jailed for murdering his wife in an attack that left her with 28 knife wounds.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Rajveer Mahey led his wife Kamaljeet, 45, to the garage of their home in Park Meadow Avenue, Bilston, in the early hours of 15 December before stabbing and slashing her.

He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years and eight months.

Judge Michael Chambers KC told Mahey he had subjected his wife to a "brutal and horrific attack".

The 50-year-old admitted his guilt at a previous hearing.

The court heard how Mahey had convinced himself that his wife was having an affair.

On the morning of her death, a neighbour's CCTV showed the couple walking to the garage at about 04:35 GMT, before screams were heard on the recording for about 10 seconds followed by silence.

The couple's teenage children were asleep upstairs.

Kamaljeet Mahey had been subjected to domestic violence over a long period, the court heard

Nearly two hours later, Mahey called relatives, admitted what he had done and told them he planned to kill himself.

In a police interview, the killer at first said his wife raised a knife to him while they were preparing food, and the fatal wounds were caused accidentally as he fought back.

But forensic evidence showed that he attacked her, and she suffered injuries to her hands trying to fend him off.

Mrs Mahey was killed at the couple's home in Bilston on 15 December

A victim impact statement from the couple's 19-year-old son said "my mum was my world" and that she had been taken by the "anger that man constantly carried with him".

He said his mother would wake at 04:15 to prepare food for her husband to take to work.

"She made our home and that man has destroyed my and my sister's home," he said.

Mahey's defence barrister said he was under no illusion as to the devastation he had caused, but said he had always provided for his family despite "a darker side behind closed doors".

Sentencing him, the judge told Mahey that he had carried out an "unnecessary and brutal killing, depriving your children of a mother".