A man has been jailed for life for the murder of his girlfriend.

Mathew Pickering will serve a minimum of 17 and a half years behind bars over the death of 46-year-old Georgina Dowey.

Ms Dowey had moved into Pickering’s address in Neath, near Swansea, in March last year.

She had previously lived in a women’s refuge in Barry, near Cardiff.

Her body was discovered by police officers in his downstairs bathroom on 7 May.

Pickering had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder.

He was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Monday after he was found guilty last week.

Judge Paul Thomas KC said Ms Dowey had suffered injuries, which included a broken nose.

Pickering then strangled her and covered her head with a black bin bag.

The judge said what Ms Dowey had experienced was a “terrifying way to die”.

He said he believed Pickering had killed Ms Dowey in a “jealous rage” after he found messages from another man on her phone.

Ms Dowey was “besotted” with Pickering, who she had known since school, the judge said.

He added that in the first 36 hours after Ms Dowey’s death, Pickering “went about calmly covering [his] tracks] with not a hint of anything untoward”.

“There was not the merest flicker of anything resembling emotion or sympathy or regret demonstrated by you,” he said.

“All you have demonstrated throughout this process is cold, callous, self-interest.”

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