Outrage as hammer killer husband gets just 10 years
THE family of a British wife battered to death with a hammer by her husband in Dubai say they have been robbed of justice after he was jailed for 10 years.
Public school-educated Francis Matthew, 61, killed his wife Jane after a row over money, a court heard.
Matthew, who edited the English language Gulf News, had faced a possible death penalty.
Relatives of Mrs Matthew, 62, were stunned when he was given the 10-year jail sentence yesterday.
They also fear Matthew will be freed early and are pressing for the prison term to be significantly increased on appeal.
In a statement, the family said they were “saddened” by the prison term. “Jane was a loving wife, mother, daughter, sister and aunt,” they added.
“Losing her in such a brutal manner has left us bewildered and shocked.
Goaded
“We feel that justice has not yet been done as we realise that the actual sentence served may be less than the 10-year sentence.
“We hope that this sentence is changed on appeal.”
The family attended the sentencing hearing at the Dubai Court of the First Instance.
Matthew was absent from court when Judge Fahad Al Shamsi announced the guilty verdict.
The Gulf News editor-at-large killed his wife of 30 years in their threebedroom apartment in the Jumeirah district last July.
As she lay wounded, he made no attempt to get medical help but scattered their possessions around to make it look like a robbery.
He went to work as usual after dumping the bloodstained hammer in a bin. Matthew later told detectives he had attacked his wife after she goaded him over mounting debts.
He claimed his wife taunted him over his failure to “provide financially” and branded him a “loser”. During an angry confrontation, she had “pushed him” before going into their bedroom.
Moments later, he grabbed a hammer and followed her into the room and struck her twice over the head.
Matthew’s lawyer claimed the journalist killed his wife in a moment of madness and argued for a conviction based on the equivalent of manslaughter in British law.
In their statement, Mrs Matthew’s family said: “We believe the facts clearly demonstrate that this crime was a deliberate act.
“In the defendant’s own version of events he collected the murder weapon, a hammer, in the kitchen and carried it down two corridors of the house to the bedroom. There was time for him to consider his actions.
“Instead he delivered two hammer blows to the front of Jane’s head. He made no attempt to call an ambulance. The defendant has admitted that rows over money had occurred frequently for some time.”
Educated at Winchester College and Exeter University, Matthew moved to the UAE in the 1980s.
He worked at The Economist before joining Gulf News.
Foreigners jailed in the UAE can negotiate a pardon or early release but not until they have spent several years in prison.