New Zealand killer of his Chinese ex-wife sentenced to life in prison

A New Zealand man was jailed for at least 19 years on Wednesday for the murder of his Chinese ex-wife.

Michael Preston, 60, was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum of 19 years for the murder of Mei Fan, 37, who was found stabbed to death in her Wellington home in November 2013, Radio New Zealand reported.

Last month, a jury at the High Court in Wellington found Preston guilty of her murder.

According to the report, the judge said in sentencing that the killing was brutal, cruel and callous to a very high level.

He said the brutality was obvious by the wounds Preston had inflicted, stabbing her in the neck and lower face, and that he had left the knife in her neck as a final insult.

Victim impact statements recalled Mei as a giving and generous woman whose two children had been denied a loving mother.

A statement read on behalf of an elderly relative in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said the family had been tormented both mentally and physically with poor health.

Prosecutors had argued that Preston killed his ex-wife because of a custody dispute over the couple's two children.