A controlling and violent alcoholic has today been convicted for the second time of murdering his disabled partner by throttling her to death nine years ago.

Dean Williams was jailed for life in October 2005 with a minimum term of 20 years before parole could be considered.

The conviction was quashed in December last year by the Court of Appeal and a retrial was ordered after hearing new evidence about his mental state.

At his latest trial, 51-year-old Williams denied murder and admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

But a jury of 10 women and two men today unanimously found Williams guilty of murder after deliberating for about four-and-a-half hours.

Mr Justice Singh said Williams' "partial defence" had not, therefore, been made out.

But he accepted a defence submission that Williams' mental disorder of "alcohol dependence syndrome", with some evidence of brain damage lowered his culpability - and reduced the original minimum term to 18 years.

It will run from the original date of conviction in 2005, making his earliest possible release date in 2023.

Williams strangled 40-year-old Mary Malkin while living with her at her flat in Millmead Road, Margate, on January 29 2005 because he was angry about a missing mobile phone.

He was on bail at the time for attacking Miss Malkin, who had a prosthetic leg, with an iron bar just weeks earlier.

A former partner of Williams told how he strangled her during their long relationship.

Describing him a "controlling and violent" heavy drinker, Kate Clarke said he would throttle her and punch and slap her.

Now going by her married name of Egerton, she said she was in a relationship "on and off" with Williams for 10 years and they had four children.

They met in 1990 and started the relationship two years later, living together in Ramsgate.

"He was very controlling and violent," she said. "The first year was fine, but when I fell pregnant with my first child there was violence."

She added: "It was three or four times a week. There were slaps and punches. He would strangle me, kick me.

"He would lift me up off the floor with his hands around my throat. I was about nine stone. He is a tall man and bigger than me.

"He would squeeze my throat. It was a hard squeeze, a prolonged squeeze where I would sometimes actually pass out. It was in front of the children some times."

Mr Justice Singh said it was clear Miss Malkin's murder had a devastating effect on her family and friends.

A pathologist had stated it would have taken about two minutes to kill by strangulation.

"It is important to stress so there can be no misunderstanding to anyone that the minimum term is precisely that," he told Williams. "It is not necessarily the actual term you will serve in prison.

"You will only be released after the parole board is satisfied you are no longer a danger to members of the public."

The judge added 204 days spent on remand would count towards the sentence.