NO SENTENCE CAN MATCH FAMILY’S LOSS
54-year-old must serve at least 14 years for wife’s murder as judge says crime ‘cast a great shadow’
A HUSBAND found guilty of murdering his wife at her home in Bangor has been sentenced to life in prison.
The judge ordered BT worker Paul Martin Jordan to serve a minimum of 14 years before being eligible for parole.
But he warned the 54-year-old that release after that period was by no means automatic.
Jordan had denied murdering his wife Elizabeth at Trem y Garnedd in Maesgeirchen on July 31 last year.
He had admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility but was convicted by the jury after a six-day trial. Sentence had been adjourned for the preparation of reports.
At the sentence hearing at Caernarfon Crown Court, Jordan’s children Paul and Clare read victim personal statements in which they described their mother as an “amazing parent whose smile could fill a room in an instant”.
Jailing Jordan, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “I accept the murder has cast a great shadow over all the family and I am keenly aware that nothing I can say, or sentence I pass, will adequately reflect their loss or the value of their late mother’s life.”
The judge said he had reminded himself of all the evidence submitted to the jury during the trial, and in particular the evidence of the two psychia- trists who agreed Jordan was suffering from a mental disorder in the run up to his wife’s death.
Noting there was only one sentence available to him, that of life imprisonment, the judge said he was required to set out the minimum term after considering aggravating and mitigating factors.
He said there had been a significant degree of premeditation and planning and it was a feature of the case that it had involved the use of a knife.
The attack, he added, had taken place in her home, a place where she could reasonably expect to feel safe.
In mitigation, the judge said Jordan had no previous convictions and was highly thought of in the community, having carried out voluntary charitable work.
“At trial, he accepted responsibility for killing her but claimed he was suffering a mental disorder and had sought help,” said the judge.
“But on the jury’s finding this was not enough.”
The jury heard Mrs Jordan was stabbed in the heart by her husband as she lay in bed.
The couple, who were separated, had enjoyed a day out at Chester Races together just two days before Mrs Jordan was murdered.
During the trip, they encountered a man who Jordan believed his wife was having an affair with.
Police had found no evidence to substantiate this belief, but the judge said he was satisfied this had acted as a trigger to the killing.
On Monday morning, after calling work to say he was sick, Jordan left his rented flat in Y Felinheli to “finally rid himself of the problem he perceived he had with his wife”.
At the house, he selected a kitchen knife and went upstairs.
After checking his daughter’s bedroom and greeting her boyfriend, he went into his wife’s room and stabbed her.
A pathologist said Mrs Jordan died of a single stab wound to the upper chest, which penetrated the left lung and heart.
Jordan then drove to Porth Penrhyn where he stayed for several hours before heading back to Y Felinheli where police arrested him.
Gordon Cole QC, defending, said Jordan knew a life sentence would be imposed.
“He knows he has to pay the penalty,” he said.
“He has instructed me to say, in public, how sorry and remorseful he is.
“And to this day he has no idea how the events unfolded and culminated last July.
“He is massively mindful of what he has done to his children.”