A “monster” who strangled his estranged wife to death with his bootlace has been jailed for life.

Rachel McDaid, 53, still had the lace tied around her neck when she was found dead in her house in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, on 19 April.

She also had bruising to her face and broken ribs.

Her estranged partner, 60-year-old Michael McDaid, pleaded guilty last week to committing what he called “the most awful crime possible” after finding out she had filed for divorce.

Judge Stuart Rafferty KC sentenced McDaid at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years and four months.

McDaid made sure the mother-of-three was home alone, tied loops at the ends of the lace to create a ligature, and asked a friend to look after his dog if “anything happened” to him.

Prosecution barrister James Varley said McDaid, of Aston-on-Trent, Derby, attacked Ms McDaid before he left the house and locked the doors from the inside “once he was sure that she was dead”.

He returned minutes later to find his eldest son trying to get in and warned him: “You can’t go in because I’ve killed her.”

The defendant “did not show emotion” and was “completely calm” during the conversation, Mr Varley said.

McDaid then left his son “panicking, terrified and crying” as he drove away while calling 999 to admit to the attack.

The eldest son, Owen McDaid, 23, found his mother dead by climbing in through a window.

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‘The man sitting here is not my Dad’

In an impact statement read to the court he called his father a “monster”.

He addressed the defendant, who sat emotionless in the dock, and said: “You, my so-called father, have ruined my life and your other sons’ lives too.

“I thought you were a loyal, caring and kind husband and father but you could not be further from that.

“The man sitting here today is not my Dad, he’s a monster”.

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‘I have committed the most awful crime possible’

McDaid said he “always loved” his wife in a statement read by defence barrister Clive Stockwell KC. He said he was in a place with his mental health he could “see no way out of”.

“I have committed the most awful crime possible. I will always be haunted by that decision,” McDaid wrote.

Speaking to the judge, Mr Stockwell said: “Michael McDaid killed his wife because he felt she caused him years of emotional suffering. He understands that this affords him no excuse or justification for taking Rachel’s life.”

‘No justification’

Addressing the defendant Judge Rafferty said: “To say you had no alternative than to kill her is frankly ludicrous.

“There was no justification for her death and no history of her treating you as the victim. All of this was in your own warped mind.

“Even now I’m not sure you have any idea just what harm you have caused.”

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