Nisha Patel-Nasri: Husband jailed for life for special constable's murder | Crime

Nisha Patel-Nasri: Husband jailed for life for special constable's murder

The husband of Nisha Patel-Nasri, the special constable who was stabbed to death with her own kitchen knife, was today jailed for life for her murder.

Fadi Nasri contracted hitmen to kill his wife so he could continue his affair with a Lithuanian woman, who worked as a prostitute, and cash in on a £350,000 life insurance policy.

The judge at the Old Bailey ordered that Nasri must serve at least 20 years in prison.

Judge Peter Beaumont, the Recorder of London, told Nasri he had betrayed the trust he owed Nisha.

"She was a loyal, loving and supportive wife," the judge said.

Nasri showed no emotion as he was sentenced.

The judge said Nasri left his wife "defenceless in her home as he exercised the alibi he had constructed for himself".

He told Nasri: "There was a significant degree of planning and premeditation. That night she was vulnerable."

It was a "gross abuse of the trust he owed her as her husband".

Nasri provided the killers with a set of keys to the home they shared in Wembley, north-west London, the jury heard during the three-month trial.

Patel-Nasri, a hairdresser and special constable with the Metropolitan police, was upstairs getting ready for bed on May 11 2006 when she heard the front door open. She grabbed a torch and went to confront the intruder.

She was stabbed in the thigh with a John Lewis knife from her kitchen, suffering a 13cm-deep wound that punctured a major artery. Neighbours found her screaming in her driveway shortly before midnight, bleeding to death.

Nasri, 34, of Barnet, north London, brought in Rodger Leslie, a drug dealer, to arrange the killing, which was carried out by Jason Jones, a doorman. Leslie, 38, of Barnet, and Jones, 36, of Manor Park, east London, were also jailed for life for the murder.

Leslie was ordered to serve at least 18 years in prison, while Jones was told he must serve at least 20 years.

The getaway driver, Tony Emmanuel, 42, of East Ham, east London, was cleared.

After last month's conviction, the officer who led the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Nick Scola, described Nasri's actions as "the final betrayal".

"Nisha was a hardworking and well-liked person whose life revolved around her family work and commitment to the community as a special constable," he said. "For her life to be ended in this way is a tragedy."

Nasri, who made a TV appeal for her killer to be found, was initially treated as a bereaved husband.

But after months of investigation it became clear that Nasri stood to benefit from her death and had been coordinating events with her killers on the night she died.

The court heard Nasri, who once ran an escort agency, had been leading a "double life" in the period leading up to his wife's death. He went on holiday with a Lithuanian woman, Laura Mockiene, who worked as a prostitute.

The two travelled to Egypt, Greece and Lithuania together and visited Ascot. After his wife's murder, he sold the home they shared and moved into a new flat with Mockiene, where he was arrested.

Mobile phone records placed Emmanuel at the scene of the crime and linked the three killers with a series of calls. A CCTV camera showed the getaway car stopping in a nearby street where the killer disposed of the murder weapon down a drain.

The Old Bailey heard Nasri-Patel had helped fund her husband's limousine business, which was registered in her name, and had paid the deposit on their home.

Nasri was "pestering her either to add his name to the business as a partner or transfer it to him", the jury was told. He was the executor and sole beneficiary of her will.

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