A man who stabbed his fiancée more than 40 times showed no emotion today as he was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years at Belfast Crown Court.
Andrew Robinson (24) was jailed for the frenzied murder of his girlfriend, Julie Ann Osbourne, at their west Belfast home on December 27th, 2000.
Lord Justice Nicholson said Robinson had planned the murder because Ms Osbourne (22) had threatened to leave him, taking their baby daughter Melissa with her.
"It was a culmination of acts of violence committed on her over a period of time when she lived with you," the judge told Robinson.
"The evidence against you was overwhelming - you killed a girl who by all accounts was gentle and kind, but who endured cruelty and ultimately death at your hands."
The court had heard that Ms Osbourne was stabbed 28 times in the back and 13 in the front and her throat was cut.
Lord Justice Nicholson said: "At one time she was lying on the floor and stabbed many times in the back. She was then turned over and stabbed in the front."
Robinson was so possessive of Ms Osbourne and Melissa that he was prepared to kill.
"I'm satisfied that you planned to murder her. It's impossible to know for how long but it wasn't done on the spur of the moment," the judge told Robinson.
Outside the court Ms Osbourne's father Thomas said he hoped Robinson would rot in hell for what he had done.
"Twenty years isn't enough for what he's done to her. I wish the death penalty was out."
Mr Osbourne said that Robinson had shown no remorse throughout the trial, and added: "I will never forgive him."
PA