Man jailed for murdering his wife

10 December 2010, 14:28 | Updated: 10 December 2010, 16:16

A doctor who stabbed his wife to death in a jealous rage, after she left him and began a relationship with another man has been jailed for life today (Friday December 10th).

Dr Amad Jumaily, 60 had employed private detectives to follow his 46 year old wife June, and fit a tracker device to her car.

They provided him with photographs of her at a restaurant with the new man in her life, Luton Crown Court heard.

When she came to the former marital home in Field Lane, Letchworth on Dec 23 last year to discuss splitting their property he stabbed her in a frenzied attack that was witness by her 18 year old daughter, Ria.

The incriminating photographs were found on the kitchen floor at their £450,000 home where her body lay.

The Iraq-born retired GP was found guilty unanimously by a jury of murder. He had denied the charge but admitted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Judge Richard Foster told him he will serve a minimum term of 16 years.

He said: "June Jumaily was in the prime of her life. Having nursed you through illness, when you recovered she wanted to stretch her wings, and why shouldn't she?

"She was blessed with a wide circle of friends and many talents, but you thought you could control her and did not allow her her freedom.

"Ultimately she left you and found love elsewhere. You just could not accept that and pursued her relentlessly and even employed private detectives. You thought you owned her.

"You stabbed her to death in a frenzied attack in a jealous rage. The trauma suffered by her daughter must be unthinkable."

David Nathan QC; "Given his age and poor physical and mental health he is unlikely to see the end of his sentence. He will spend every day of his life trying to make sense of what he did."

The court heard that June Jumaily was a yoga teacher but had been taking a masters degree in film script writing before her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

The jury heard that Dr Jumaily had retired from practise some years earlier and had worked as a property developer and did some drug and alcohol counselling work. He came from Iraq but had lived in the UK for many years.

He and June had been married for 10 years. They each had a child. Ria, who was June's daughter, and Rania, 25, who was his.

Michael Speak, prosecuting said "It is clear that during 2009 the marriage had effectively broken down through various difficulties. June Jumaily had left her husband at the end of October or early November. She had moved out of the matrimonial home.

"It also seems that she had met another man and was in the early stages of some type of relationship with someone else."

He said Jumaily was driven by jealousy and hired private detectives to spy on his wife after she had left. They followed his wife and photographed her in an embrace with a man. That photograph, said Mr Speak, was at the house when Mrs Jumaily arrived with a list she had prepared to divide up their property. "That was the spark. The final straw. He simply erupted and went into a violent and uncontrollable rage."

Ria Jumaily rushed to the kitchen and saw him stabbing her mother on the floor. A frantic and harrowing 999 call she made was played to the jury. Then she managed to get hold of the knife and lock the doctor in another room.

But her mother died from the injuries inflicted by 20 stab wounds.

Dr Jumaily told the jury he had lost all control of his mind at the time. He described June as 'my life line, the love of my life', and said he had repeatedly contemplated suicide in the weeks after she left him.