Michael Thompson shook his head in the dock as evidence against him was laid out, but when it came time to hear his daughter describe the devastation he had caused, he refused to leave his cell. The 56-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 33 years at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday – handed down in his absence after he voluntarily stayed in his cell.
Thompson had suffocated his estranged wife Kimberley at their Northampton home in the early hours of August 9 last year, then went room to room gathering photos, packets of tablets and bottles of alcohol to manufacture evidence that she had taken her own life. A post-mortem examination found no alcohol in her body and only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol and codeine.
“Michael Thompson, 56, jailed for life with 33-year minimum for raping and murdering his wife Kimberley and staging it as suicide.”
During a seven-week trial, Thompson claimed the couple had engaged in consensual sex before he later discovered the 43-year-old unresponsive. But he declined to give evidence, shaking his head and making audible noises of dissent as the case against him unfolded. Jurors unanimously found him guilty last week of murder, rape and two counts of perverting the course of justice.
At least six of the 11 jurors who returned to watch the sentencing wiped away tears as the couple's daughter, Athena, appeared via video-link from the US. “How could you do such an evil, selfish, malicious thing?” she said. “How could you murder the mother of your own children? You couldn't stand the fact she had so many people who cared about her. No amount of years rotting in prison will ever amount to what you deserve, because you deserve no life. The day you killed my mother, you killed me too.”
Judge Nirmal Shant KC said Thompson had shown “no remorse” and described his refusal to attend court as “the ultimate act of cowardice and contempt”. She ordered that a bundle containing all victim impact statements and her sentencing remarks be forwarded to Thompson so he could “read of the devastation you have wreaked”.
The court heard that Thompson had subjected Kimberley to years of domestic abuse, including controlling, coercive behaviour and physical violence, and had made hundreds of hours of recordings of her. The couple, married for 19 years, had separated and divorce proceedings had been initiated. Close friends and family described Kimberley as being the “happiest” they had seen her in years, financially independent and ready to move on with a new boyfriend.
Addressing Thompson, the judge jailed him for life with a minimum term of 33 years before he can apply for parole – a sentence he will have to hear about second-hand, from a prison cell he chose not to leave.
