Life for ‘pitiless’ murderer who appeared in court in hospital bed

Sergei Zolotovsky, 44, was told he would serve at least 30 years in prison for killing Svetlana Zolotovska, 40, and her mother Antonina Belska, 70.

He attacked Ms Zolotovska as she walked to work in Beckton Park, east London, in August 2010, stabbing her and then cutting her throat.

The Russian-born welder was furious over a financial settlement that had been made as part of their acrimonious divorce two days before.

Zolotovsky then went to their former marital home in Newham, east London, and stabbed Mrs Belska, 70, before trying to set fire to the house and cutting his wrists and throat.

Passing sentence, Judge Stephen Kramer QC said: “The attack on your ex-wife was pitiless. I’m satisfied that you were prepared to use extreme violence to get your revenge.”

Twelve days after the murders, Zolotovsky tried to commit suicide by throwing himself from a prison landing and was paralysed from the waist down.

This meant that, in what is thought to be a legal first, he was allowed to appear at the Old Bailey in a hospital bed. A jury took just over half an hour to convict him of the double murder in March.