An former policeman who stabbed his lover to death was today ordered to serve at least 18 years in jail before he can be freed.
William Coulter (52) knifed mother-of-two Gillian Doherty 30 times in a drunken rage at their home in Portstewart, Co Derry, in January 2003.
As he sentenced Coulter, Lord Justice Nicholson referred to him as a lying monster who had beaten Ms Doherty for months.
Even though Antrim Crown Court, sitting in Ballymena, heard the victim struck Coulter on the face with a wine glass, the judge stressed any provocation did not justify the awful violence that followed.
He said: "You got hold of the knife and threw her on to the bed. She was defenceless, she was helpless."
Coulter, who once served as a full-time reservist in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was a chronic alcoholic, his trial heard.
Relatives of the murder victim and women's campaigners described the heavy tariff imposed by the judge as a signal that the courts were finally getting tough on domestic violence.