A LANCASTER man who sexually assaulted and bludgeoned his estranged wife with a hammer is beginning a life sentence.

Carl Owens, pictured right, was told by Judge Peter Openshaw he should serve at least 16 years before being considered for parole for the 'sadistic' attack on Anne Marie Owens.

The defendant, of Lymm Avenue, denied the murder charge but a jury convicted him by a unanimous verdict after the prosecution refused to accept his plea of guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Preston Crown Court heard how Anne Marie, a mother-of-three, had wanted a divorce after developing a relationship with another man.

The 40-year-old told the jury how it made his blood boil when she talked about having a child with another man because he had had a vasectomy after the pair agreed not to have another baby.

The court heard that Owens murdered the 38-year-old at the family home on Slyne Road in the city on July 30, 2003.

He was found the next morning in bed next to her body. He had sent a text message to a woman he had met through a dating agency saying 'I loved her too much'.

Owens told police he had gone to the marital home, where he drank Jack Daniels and took pills.

Anne Marie arrived home at 5.15am and he claimed she woke him saying she could now have the baby she wanted.

The defendant, who had been a union officer for three years and a Lancashire County Council worker for 16 years, told police he had snapped after feeling that his wife had pushed him too far.

"I went there to die. I didn't mean to kill her. I just lost it," he said.

A pathologist said Mrs Owens, a residential nurse, was struck seven times to the head with a hammer and then suffocated and that there were fractures consistent with manual strangulation.

Barrister Nigel Hamilton said: "If you could not have her, no-one else could." But Owens denied it.

Judge Openshaw said Owens had shown possessiveness, jealousy and double standards.

"The murder bore the hallmarks of a sexually sadistic attack with an added element of humiliation and degradation."

Afterwards, DI Andy Webster called the murder 'barbaric'.

He added: "Anne Marie suffered a serious sexual assault leaving her with horrific injuries. I have no doubt Carl Owens derived sexual gratification from doing this."