Oxford judge's sentencing remarks in Wallingford murder case

Having been convicted of murder, Mihai Hurmuz-Irimia was always going to receive a life sentence.

The only question for the judge was the length of the tariff – the minimum time the killer will spend behind bars before being eligible for release.

The judge’s sentencing remarks

“In the early hours of Tuesday, August 30 last year, you attacked and brutally murdered your wife Katie in the flat that you occupied with her at 37 Blue Mountains, Wallingford, in Oxfordshire."

Motive

“Precisely why you did so only you will ever know. Whether it was because she had told you as she had she had informed you by text two days earlier that you marriage had finished seems unlikely, as your texts to each other earlier in the day had been very affectionate.

“Whether it was because she found you snorting cocaine in the flat and you started rowing as you’d increasingly done over the last year or so about your behaviour we shall never know.

“Or whether it was simply because you had ingested some two grammes of cocaine that night and for a period of time completely lost control, again we shall never know."

Attack

“What we do know is that this was a most savage attack which almost certainly began while she was lying in her bed.

“You had taken knives from the kitchen and used those to stab and cut her repeatedly.

“There were blows concentrated predominantly on her head, her neck and her back.”

He said: “You severed her carotid artery and her jugular vein, in themselves almost inevitably fatal wounds.

“The photographs depict how the attack involved and moved from the bedroom into the hallway, with massive blood loss.

“Her body was eventually found by police face-down in the hallway of her own home.”

Judge Pringle added: “After the killing you showered yourself. You dried yourself off with a towel and then rang the police.

“We heard that phone call during the trial.

“You were able to tell the police that you thought that you’d killed your wife, that you’d stabbed her multiple times that it had been mainly in the neck, that you had done so with two kitchen knives, that one of the knives was in the kitchen and the other one in the bedroom, that Katie’s body was in the hallway, that the only clothing you’d had on at the time of the killing was a pair of boxer shorts which they could find in the bathroom.

“Of course, you also told the operator you had acted as you had because you were depressed, you’d taken medication, you’d been raped when you were a child and that you needed help with your mental condition.

“I find as a fact that this was yet another example of you wallowing in your own self-pity."

'Self-pity'

“We had seen this personality trait of yours only a couple of days previously.

“On a weekend away to celebrate your fifth wedding anniversary with your wife and stepson, you had become very drunk and gone out on the town with complete strangers in Bournemouth.

“Having received text messages from your wife telling you that this was the last straw and that your marriage was over, you went into the sea at a shallow depth where you could still easily stand up and shouted for help, claiming that this was an attempt by you to commit suicide.

“It was not. It was yet another example of you pitying yourself and not those that you had hurt.”

“It’s also clear to me that threatening your wife with a knife in your hand was something that had occurred at least once previously and had involved the police attending.

“Despite all of this, your wife always forgave you, always had you back, because she continued to love you.”

Judge Ian Pringle KC

Sentence

He told the defendant: "The only sentence that I can pass in this case is one of imprisonment for life. I do so."

In setting the minimum tariff, the judge rehearsed the statute and the case law around murders involving knives.

Setting out the aggravating features of the murder, Judge Pringle noted:

The use of two knives, 'an attack with a knife is itself an aggravating feature'

The prolonged nature of the attack on Katie. "The pathologist counted no less than 171 stab wounds and incisions on her body."

The fact it occurred in her own home and 'almost certainly when she was lying in her own bed'.

The fact that he had taken a 'considerable' amount of cocaine before the attack

Turning to the mitigation, Judge Pringle said: "There was probably little or no real pre-meditation in this case and you clearly had certainly personality traits which influenced your behaviour at times."

He warned the defendant that he will remain on licence for the rest of his life, meaning that he is liable to be recalled to prison at any time when/if the Parole Board deems him fit to be released after serving his 21 year tariff.

The judge ended: "Mihai Hurmuz-Irimia, please stand. For the murder of your wife Katie Hurmuz-Irimia I sentence you to imprisonment for life with a minimum to serve of 21 years." 328 days spent on remand will count towards his sentence.