A former pilot was today jailed for life with a minimum term of 24 years for murdering his wife by deliberately crashing his car into a tree at 50mph after her airbag had been disabled.
Iain Lawrence, 53, killed his 47-year-old wife Sally Lawrence in a 'monstrous act of cruelty' by faking a high speed accident because she wanted a divorce and had a new lover.
Lawrence disabled the passenger airbag of his red Peugeot before the crash on October 6 last year and, in the moments before the car struck the tree, unclipped his wife's seatbelt.
The controlling husband was unable to accept his wife had found a new partner and would tell her 'You will get your feelings back for me.'
After denying murder a jury of six men and six women convicted him by a majority verdict of 11-1 at Leicester Crown Court in just eight hours.
Prosecutors said Lawrence adopted the brace position in the crash as Mrs Lawrence, who was not wearing a seat-belt, died almost instantly.
Iain Lawrence purposely careered off a bend on a quiet country road in order to kill company director wife Sally, who was sitting in the passenger seat, in a 'most cunning way'.
Family and friends of Mrs Lawrence clapped and shouted 'yes' in the public gallery as the verdict was read out.
Tragedy: Sally Lawrence had warned a friends that estranged husband Iain Lawrence: 'One day he will kill me'
Lawrence, wearing a grey suit, stared straight ahead in the dock.
High Court judge Mr Justice Leggatt told Lawrence he would serve a minimum term of 24 years.
'The way in which you killed Sally was both brutal and carefully planned,' he said.
'You must have singled out the spot on the Gartree Road - a road you knew well - as a place that suited your purpose: a large tree with clear ground in front of it on a gentle bend in the road.'
He said Lawrence disabled the passenger airbag 'in preparation' for what he planned to do.
Mr Justice Leggatt continued: 'How you got Sally into your car, and whether by trickery or force, no-one but you can know. I suspect it was a combination of the two. However you achieved it, she cannot have imagined what you were planning to do next.
'The evidence at this trial has clearly established how you killed Sally. As you approached the spot which was your target you reached across and unclipped her seatbelt. Then you steered the car at the tree and drove straight into it at over 50mph.
'You aimed so that the passenger's side of the car struck the tree and bore the full brunt of the collision. You had the protection of an airbag and seatbelt - protection you had made sure that Sally did not have - and, to protect yourself further, you got into the brace position before the crash.
'It was not chance but the result of your careful and cold- blooded planning that you came away from the collision with a few bruises while Sally died of catastrophic injuries.
'You thought that the crash would be seen as a tragic accident and that you would get away with murder. You would indeed have done so if it had not been for the careful and thorough investigation carried out by the police.'
Gartree Road near Leicester, where Mrs Lawrrence died. The court heard the passenger's side airbag had been turned off
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