British Indian man in England, who was found guilty of strangling his wife to join his gay friend in Australia, has been jailed for 30 years. Jessica Patel, who ran Roman Road Pharmacy in Middlesbrough with her husband Mitesh Patel, was found dead at the couple’s home on The Avenue in May this year.
Mitesh Patel was convicted of killing Jessica Patel by injecting with insulin before strangling her with a supermarket bag at their home. According to the investigating officials, 37-year-old man had plotted his wife’s murder for several years. Investigating officers also managed to establish that Mitesh had used Google search to look for methods how to kill his wife.
After killing his wife, the man had orchestrated a break-in incident to make it look like a case of burglary and imply that Jessica had been by murdered by an intruder. Mitesh wanted to move to Australia with a £2m life insurance payout as a result of his wife’s death to be with his boyfriend, who he had met on a gay dating website.
Mitesh, according to Sky News, had been seeking sex with men through the gay dating app, Grindr, and was planning to follow his boyfriend and “soulmate” to Sydney in Australia.
The jury heard that Patel’s internet searches included: “I need to kill my wife”, “insulin overdose”, “plot to kill my wife, do I need a co-conspirator?”, “hiring hitman UK” and “how much methadone will kill you?”
Sentencing Patel, Justice Goss told him, “You have no remorse for your actions. Any pity you have is for yourself.” According to BBC, the judge told the defendant that Mrs Patel “clearly loved you and was a dutiful wife” of nine years, adding: “She wanted nothing more than to have children and live a normal family life. The difficulty is that you had no sexual attraction to her; you were attracted to men.”
The judge added, “You were also wanting to commit to a life with another man on your own terms and you well knew that insurance policies would realise £2m on Jessica’s death.”
He said Mrs Patel was to some extent aware of her husband’s sexuality and was “lonely, often upset and controlled by you”.
The judge said Patel’s messages revealed him to be “needy and callous” and he used Mrs Patel “whilst indulging your own desires and whims”.
According to The Guardian website, the judge said that a 30-year minimum term was reserved for only cases where the seriousness of the offence is “particularly severe”. He added, “This is such a case.”
In a statement, Jessica’s younger sister, Divya, described Patel’s actions as “evil, cruel and malicious”.