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An unfaithful husband who strangled his wife and fled with her body in his car boot has been sentenced to a minimum of 16 years.
Wealthy businessman Derek Symmons, 63, strangled his wife of 38 years, 59-year-old Christine, in the hall of their £1 million home in Loudwater, Hertfordshire.
He attacked her when she taunted him about being impotent and insulted the memory of his dead mother hours after they had been to a marriage counselling session.
She had just discovered the father-of-two had been cheating on her with 52-year-old teacher Myra Croney who he met through an internet dating agency. He then bundled her body, wrapped in polythene, into the boot of their BMW before catching a cross-Channel ferry to Calais and driving to Macon in central France.
He only confessed to the murder when his daughter Claire phoned him the following day worried about her mother's safety. He told her : "I've done something terrible. You'll never forgive me."
During the trial at St Albans Crown Court, Symmons claimed he acted in self-defence when his wife attacked him over his affair. But judge Michael Baker, QC, said he had rejected his evidence as a "web of deceit", adding: "You painted yourself as a loving husband, cut to the quick by your wife's taunts about your mother and your claimed impotence.
"Whatever your sensitivity on these matters, the reality is you were conducting an affair at the time and, even after your wife found out about it and you had begged to be forgiven, you had no real intention of stopping it.
"You killed your wife in an impulsive act when, uncharacteristically, she stood up to you.
"Nothing she said or did justified any violence on your part, let alone the extreme and savage beating and strangling you meted out to her."
The judge went on: "Your conduct after the event was calculated, cold- hearted and callous.
"Instead of immediately ringing for the emergency services as any contrite man would have done, you wrapped your wife's body in polythene and concealed it in the boot of your car.
"You took steps to clear the scene of incriminating clues, you cashed some money at a hole in the wall in the early hours, you went briefly into work, and you drove to France.
"I reject completely your claim that you did not know what you were doing.
"You only stopped trying to escape when your daughter rang and asked where her mother was. It was only then that the spark of humanity returned to you and you realised that you could not keep up the charade."
Symmons, wearing a black suit and white shirt, showed no emotion as he was jailed for life.
During the three-week trial the court heard that by the summer of last year the couple's marriage was in deep trouble.
Mrs Symmons, a hairdresser and onetime Samaritan, had found out he had been cheating on her.
In June Symmons had accidentally phoned home on his mobile phone while with his lover Ms Croney.
His wife heard them kissing and him saying "I love you" followed by "it's too hot to wear knickers in the summer".
Mrs Symmons discovered condoms in his wallet, a prescription for Viagra and by checking his credit card bills discovered he and Ms Croney had stayed at hotels together including one in Venice.
Nadine Radford QC, defending, said Symmons had lost everything in a "spontaneous fit of action".
She added: "His children and his grandchildren and any future grandchildren are lost to him. It is likely that he will either die in custody or he will be released and will die shortly after that."
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