Man who strangled his wife to get insurance and start a new life with his male lover found guilty

The pharmacist who premeditated the murder of his wife by suffocating her with a Tesco bag got given a life sentence.

37-year-old Mitesh Patel aimed to kill his wife, collect the £2million life insurance payout and raise a child with the man he had been having an affair with, in Australia.

Mitesh got convicted of murder by a unanimous jury after three hours of deliberation on the 12th day of the trail. He strangled his wife with a Tesco bag and staged a break-in at their house, so it would appear that an intruder killed his wife.

Now convicted, Mitesh will spend a minimum of 30 years in prison for the murder of 34-year-old Jessica Patel in Middlesbrough. Plotting to kill her for years, Mitesh hoped on starting a new life in Australia with his ‘soul mate’ Dr. Amit Patel, but he wanted a baby first.

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Mitesh injected his wife with insulin before he strangled her with a Tesco bag in May. Her body had been bound with tape and staged a break-in to make it look like an intruder was responsible.

On Wednesday during sentencing at Teeside Crown Court, Judge James Goss told Mitesh:

“You have no remorse for your actions. Any pity you have is for yourself.’”

During the trial Mitesh’s internet searches dating back years showed terms that included “how much methadone will kill you?” and “insulin overdose.”

But he could not carry out his plan yet as he desperately tried to convince his wife to have a baby through IVF. She eventually conceded and after three unsuccessful cycles, the fourth treatment worked and resulted in three embryos which are frozen in a Darlington clinic.

But as the judge pointed out, Mitesh made some fundamental errors while trying to cover up the murder of his wife. He left the duct tape he used to tie up his wife’s body at their pharmacy and forgot to hide the CCTV hard drive of his house. But it is also Mitesh’s iPhone health app that helped to convict him and is thought to be a legal UK first.

When Mitesh got arrested, police seized his cellphone and downloaded information about his movements; this included when the phone moved and where.

Because the health app uses motion processors to monitor a user’s steps and when you climb up and down stairs, that evidence got used to showing his movements at the time of his wife's death.

It showed the frantic movements around his home as he went up and down the stairs, ransacking rooms to stage the break-in after strangling his wife in the living room.

The iPhone health app may also help convict another criminal in Germany. Because the information it provides credibly relays the physical activity of the user, and type of activity it is highly relevant in some instances.

An Afghan man on trial in Germany for the murder and rape of an EU official’s daughter could face conviction with the help of his iPhone’s data. The health app showed the man, Hussein Khavari performing ‘strenuous activity’ at the time of 19-year-old, Maria Ladenburger’s attack in Freiburg in October 2016.

Another life sentence got handed out this week as Chris Watts appeared before Judge Marcelo Kopcow on Monday. Chris had strangled his pregnant wife Shanann and smothered his daughters, Bella,4, and Celeste, 3.

The reason for his actions are still unknown, and Chris had said little throughout the trail. But he will never leave prison as he got sentenced with no possibility of parole.

Judge Kopcow sentenced Chriss to five life sentences with 48 years for unlawful termination of pregnancy and another 36 years for crimes relating to the disposal of their bodies.