Jealous husband facing life for arranging wife's savage killing

Geeta Aulakh, 28, was attacked with a machete as she went to collect her two sons, aged eight and 10, from a childminder last November in Greenford, West London.

The popular Sunrise Radio receptionist had her right hand cut off as she tried to protect herself from at least four "devastating" blows.

Husband Harpreet Aulakh, 32, of Greenford, was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey yesterday along with Sher Singh, 19, of Southall, west London, and Jaswant Dhillon, 30, of Ilford, east London.

Jurors were still considering the case of Harpreet Singh, 20, of Slough, Berkshire and were sent home to continue deliberations today. He denies murder.

Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, said behind the "savage and determined" attack was Aulakh's "chilling" reaction to his wife's desire to leave him.

"Geeta Aulakh was in the process of divorcing him and that would not be tolerated," he said. "No one else in the world could possibly have wished this utterly innocent and hard-working woman and mother any harm."

Aulakh, described by Mr Jafferjee as "smug and utterly unrepentant", claimed in court his wife was his "first love" and he did not kill her.

He had thought he was in the clear because he made sure he was captured on CCTV in a pub at the time of the murder.

Jurors heard he told a friend: "I don't do anything stupid. I get someone else to do it."

But detectives discovered he had himself offered 5,000 for the killing and had been in phone contact with Sher Singh, said to have wielded the machete.

They also found pictures from a wedding in the Punjab showing Aulakh with Singh – who was linked to the murder by DNA.

Another breakthrough came when CCTV footage from a store showed Aulakh buying the blade just days before the murder.

Aulakh had ordered the murder after his wife plucked up the courage to ask for a divorce following years of abuse and harassment.

He was wrongly convinced that she was having an affair.

Aulakh told her sister Anita Shinh his wife had a boyfriend and vowed: "I'm going to kill him and I'm going to kill her."