A HUSBAND has started a life sentence for the murder of his wife as she lay in the bath during an argument about their crippling finances.

Darren Chittenden, of Langney Drive, Ashford, looked pale and shook as a judge told him he would serve a minimum of 12 years. Almost a year spent in custody will count towards the sentence.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, said he accepted that the killing was not premeditated. He said he was also moved by a letter the couple's daughter, Tiffany, had written to him.

But he added: "It is by your actions alone that she has not only lost her mother but now the support of you, which she could otherwise have come to expect as a father at such a difficult time."

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the 42-year-old financial consultant admitted punching his asthmatic wife, Zarna, twice and pressing down on her as she struggled.

He then walked out of their home and when he returned she was dead. He covered her naked body with a towel and called the emergency services.

Chittenden denied murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, but was unanimously convicted of the more serious charge by the jury of six men and five women.

The attack happened on Mrs Chittenden’s 42nd birthday on June 28 last year. They had been married for 20 years.

Richard Barraclough, QC, prosecuting, said the couple were devoted to each other, their two children and their luxury home.

As well as asthma, Mrs Chittenden had suffered for some years with irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and an inflamed gullet.

Shortly before her death, her husband was being threatened with bankruptcy and the loss of the house she loved.

Chittenden dialled 999 and told the operator that his wife was lying dead in the bath after they had "a massive fight".

"Mr Chittenden eventually told police that he held his wife down in the bath until she had stopped struggling and he then punched her twice in the face," said Mr Barraclough.

"He doesn’t state he held her under the water. If his final explanation to the police is to be believed, it looks as if he held her down in the tight confines of the bath and he pressed down on her so that her struggling became weaker, she couldn’t breathe and she suffocated.

"About the same time, it looks as if she had an asthma attack, which would have made her position even worse."

A month later he went to the police station and told an officer: "I know what I have done and that I was responsible for her death."