British editor who killed wife in Dubai jailed for 15 years

A British former newspaper editor in Dubai who was convicted of killing his wife with a hammer has had his sentence extended to 15 years.

Francis Matthew was found guilty in March of bludgeoning his wife to death at their home and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The latest verdict was announced on Sunday after both sides had appealed.

The former editor of the English-language Gulf News had faced the possibility of the death penalty over the July 2017 killing of Jane Matthew, his wife of over 30 years.

Matthew and his wife were prominent members of the UAE's large British expatriate community.

Peter Manning, Jane's brother, welcomed the ruling, saying the lesser sentence would have been a "terrible injustice."

The slaying took place on 4 July and shocked the United Arab Emirates' large British expatriate population, of which Matthew and his wife belonged.

Dubai police said they were called to Matthew's three-bedroom villa in Dubai's Jumeirah neighbourhood to find his wife of over 30 years dead. The editor told them robbers broke into the home and killed her.

But during a later interrogation, police say Matthew told them his wife had grown angry with him because they were in debt and needed to move. Matthew said he got angry when his wife called him "a loser" and told him "you should provide financially," according to police.

Matthew went on to reveal his wife pushed him during the argument. He then got a hammer, followed her into the bedroom and struck her twice in the head, killing her, according to a police report.

The next morning, Matthew tried to make it look like the house had been robbed and later went to work like nothing had happened, throwing the hammer in a nearby dumpster, police said.