Brutal killer of Latvian girlfriend jailed for life with 19-year term

Ordering Jevgenni Matjuhha to serve a minimum of 19 years in prison, Mr Justice Foskett told him at Leeds Crown Court yesterday: “One day I trust you will truly understand what you have done.”

His actions had left Nadija Ondzule’s teenage son without a mother, deprived her parents of a much loved daughter and her friends of someone “who enjoyed everything in life”, the judge said.

“She might have had her faults, who does not, but she did not deserve to lose her life in this way. The sympathies of everyone will be with her family in particular.”

Matjuhha, 23 was unanimously convicted by a jury on Tuesday of murdering Miss Ondzule, 36, on January 20 this year. Six jurors returned to hear sentence passed.

Miss Ondzule’s body, was only found on February 1 at the flat they shared in Oddfellows Street, Mirfield, Dewsbury, after Matjuhha phoned a friend of hers.

By then he had flown to Amsterdam and travelled on to the Ukraine and Estonia, from where he was eventually returned under a European arrest warrant.

The judge said he believed Matjuhha was infatuated with Miss Ondzule, who wanted to end their relationship, and planned to kill her if she would not change her mind.

Aggravating features included within minutes withdrawing money from her accounts, carrying out research on prostitutes in Amsterdam that same night, his “web of deceit” about her whereabouts to friends and his “cruel messages” to her mother and son to gain himself time.

Showing her body to a friend via a webcam also revealed “marked disrespect”.

“Who knows what other eyes might inadvertently see such a page conveyed as it is through cyberspace,” he added.