After Wife Called Him a 'Loser,' He Bludgeoned Her to Death

British editor gets 10 years in Dubai for killing wife with a hammer
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 25, 2018 8:10 AM CDT
Brit in Dubai Gets 10 Years for Bludgeoning Wife to Death
A British man has been sentenced in Dubai for bludgeoning his wife to death with a hammer.   (Getty Images)

A British newspaper editor in Dubai was found guilty Sunday of bludgeoning his wife to death with a hammer and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Francis Matthew, the former editor of the English-language Gulf News, had faced the possibility of the death penalty in the July 2017 killing of Jane Matthew, his wife of over 30 years. Matthew's lawyer, Ali al-Shamsi, said he would appeal. A brother of Matthew's wife, who was in court for the verdict, expressed disappointment. "Our family has been saddened by the sentence given to Francis Matthew, Jane's killer. We believe the facts clearly demonstrate that this crime was a deliberate act," Peter Manning told the AP in a statement. Dubai police say they were called to Matthew's three-bedroom villa in Dubai on July 4. There, they say they found his wife dead, and the editor told them robbers had broken into the home and killed her.

During a later interrogation, however, police say Matthew told them his wife had grown angry because they were in debt and needed to move. Matthew said he got angry when his wife called him a "loser" and told him "you should provide financially," according to police. Matthew told police his wife pushed him. He then got a hammer, followed her into the bedroom and struck her twice in the head, killing her, according to a police report. The next morning, Matthew tried to make it look like the house had been robbed and went to work like nothing had happened, throwing the hammer in a nearby trash can, police said. Manning said the sequence of events proved the killing was premeditated. "In the defendant's own version of events, he collected the murder weapon, a hammer, in the kitchen and carried it down two corridors ... to the bedroom. There was time for him to consider his actions."

(More murder stories.)

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