FORMER van driver Stuart Johnstone was this afternoon jailed for life at Maidstone Crown Court after being found guilty of murdering his wife.

Johnstone, 46, of Fawkham, near Dartford, was told by Judge Andrew Patience: “What you did on the night of Friday March 21, 1997, was wicked and cruel."

Johnstone, a father of two, was also jailed for five years concurrent for preventing the burial of his wife’s body, which he admitted part-way through the trial.

The judge told Johnstone: "I have no doubt that you killed your wife, Angela, in order to get your hands on 2 Cross Cottages (where the couple lived) and to set up your life thereafter with Sarah Tall.

“You have never shown the slightest degree of remorse for what you did, but have tried to deny it and to cast responsibility for her death on Sarah Tall.”