NEIGHBOURS of a woman murdered by her husband have welcomed the life sentence handed to him. Richard Cooper wept as a judge at Maidstone Crown Court sentenced him for the brutal murder of 46-year-old Teresa Cooper last March.

Neighbours near her flat in Randolph Road, Gillingham, where the murder happened, said the sentence was just. Mother of five Wendy Rose, 30 said: "He deserves a life sentence for killing her the way he did. If you kill someone, you pay the price."

Another person living nearby blamed other tenants for the tragedy, saying that if they had called for help when they heard Mrs Cooper's screams then perhaps her life could have been saved.

She said: "If people are in trouble, you call the police for help and maybe it wouldn't have finished as it did with her dead."

Another resident said she hoped Cooper, Teresa's third husband, would receive psychiatric help in prison to help him come to terms with what he had done, but added that he should serve his full sentence.

The jury in the week-long trial heard a 23 minute tape of the murder, ending in Mr Cooper telling his railway worker wife: "You are the weakest link, goodbye."

Cooper had bought a dictaphone which he recorded the ordeal on to monitor a conversation between his wife and her lover, Chris Sindall who she told her husband she was going to leave. However, Cooper recorded them having sex and the confrontation afterwards led to him beating and strangling her.

As Teresa tried to defend herself during the assault, the dictaphone was switched on and provided the jury with the evidence they needed to convict Cooper of murder.