A SCHEMING husband was jailed for life today after killing his wife in a cottage fire to pocket £250,000 life insurance.

Jong Rhee, 34, used funds from a joint bank account to finance his gambling habit and then killed Natalie, 25, in a fire at the holiday home so he could claim the cash.

His wife, whose parents live at Field Garden, Steventon, died from inhaling fumes at the cottage in Llanrwst in the Conwy Valley, North Wales on April 15 last year.

Rhee claimed he jumped from the window of the burning house and then told his wife to follow him but she failed to do so.

The jury at Chester Crown Court took just under ten hours to convict the Korean-born defendant who showed no emotion when the guilty verdict was announced.

Judge Mrs Justice Ebsworth told him: "The crime was a calculated cold-blooded murder for gain. It was a wicked crime.

"Natalie Rhee was a pretty, bright, intelligent young woman with a certain amount of money. She trusted you because she loved you but you just wanted her money.

"You set about insuring her life then took her away on holiday and killed her. That must have been a planned crime." She added that a recommendation would be made to Home Secretary Jack Straw that Rhee should spend "many years" behind bars.

After the hearing, it emerged that Rhee was cleared of murdering a Kent shop manager in 1980 when he was a teenager.

Chester Crown Court heard that at the time of Natalie's death, Rhee had spent all their capital on gambling.

John Rogers, prosecuting, said: "The fire was started deliberately by him. His motive was to obtain the £250,000 insurance on her life."

Rhee and Natalie married in July 1994 when he was studying a management course at Middlesex University and she supported them both with her job at a merchant bank in London.

In January last year, the couple's account was £93,000 in credit but by mid-February Rhee had gambled it away.

He increased the life insurance cover on his wife by £150,000 in the weeks leading up to the murder.

During the police investigation, officers raided Rhee's London home and found a copy of the 1991 film Backdraft about Chicago firefighters.

Rhee refused to give direct evidence to the trial and fire investigators gave conflicting reports about whether the fatal blaze had been started deliberately.

Rhee denied murdering his wife. It was not the first time he had pleaded not guilty before a murder trial jury.

In 1981, he was cleared at the Old Bailey of murdering shop manager Jovan Wong, in a frenzied knife attack.

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