UK NRI gets lifer for beating wife to death

Nirmal Gill killed his wife Rosemary in the bedroom of their home in Bristol in July last year and was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court after a four-week trial which ended this week.

"You brutally bludgeoned your wife to death, using a heavy dumbbell bar which you had taken from the hallway of your home and carried upstairs to her bedroom," the judge said.

"You did so because your marriage was disintegrating. You wanted the relationship to continue but Rosemary, in her own words, 'no longer had anything to give'. She had begun to find happiness with another man and she had kept that a secret from you and your children," he added.

The court heard that 49-year-old Gill had become suspicious of his wife's behaviour and hired a team of private investigators to watch her movements.

The sleuths fitted a tracking device to Rosemary's car and regularly sent text messages of her location to Gill, who followed her in his own and borrowed cars.

Gill discovered his wife was having an affair with her ex-husband, Andrew Cooper, when he saw the pair embracing during a secret meeting. Three days later, he carried out the "revenge" attack, using a metal dumbbell to strike his wife on the head at least 12 times.

The 48-year-old's body was found eight hours later by the couple's 19-year-old daughter, Jasmine, who had been asleep in the room next door.

Gill had admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claiming he suffered a loss of control and diminished responsibility from mental illness. But he was convicted of murder by a unanimous jury.

Rosemary had married Gill in 1989 and they had two children, Zac and Jasmine, but the relationship began to struggle last year.

At the beginning of the year, Rosemary rekindled her friendship with her ex-husband, and later their relationship, and she asked her husband for a divorce in June last year.

"The real cause of this attack was that you were unable to accept that Rosemary was going to move on and have a life without you," the judge concluded.

Forensic examinations found Rosemary had been clothed during the fatal attack, with her underwear ripped from her body after she died. Gill later admitted he attempted to have sex with his wife 20 minutes after her death.

Speaking outside court, detective inspector Julie Mackay said "Nirmal Gill is a possessive man who couldn't accept the breakdown of his marriage. He couldn't face the thought of Rosemary living an independent life without him and in a cold and calculated attack took her life away."