RIMAS VENCLOVAS SENTENCED TO LIFE FOR KIDNAPPING AND MURDERING EX-WIFE
A man who kidnapped and murdered his ex-wife and buried her body in Poland has been jailed for life.Vitalija Baliutaviciene, 29, had come to Peterborough only to escape the "obsessed" and "jealous" Rimas Venclovas, the Old Bailey heard.
Lithuanian migrant worker Venclovas, 47, abducted her in August 2011.
Her body was found in a shallow grave two months later.
He had denied kidnap and murder and will serve a minimum of 20 years.
Miss Baliutaviciene was last seen on CCTV being abducted on her way to work in Peterborough, at 05:15 BST on 12 August last year.
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During the trial, he said he and Miss Baliutaviciene had been "getting on well" at the time he kidnapped and murdered her.
He said: "I never threatened her." As he passed sentence, Mr Justice Fulford said: "This was a coldly and carefully-executed murder." The judge said he had no doubt Venclovas did not kill Miss Baliutaviciene immediately but tortured her by holding her throat and "keeping her between life and death".
Miss Baliutaviciene's mother, Vanda Cerneckaite, 64, and her brother, Audrius Sreberis, 30, said in a statement: "For six months after she disappeared we had to live with the anguish of not knowing what had happened to her.
Our lives stopped the day she disappeared and they will never be the same again.
Rimas is an evil man who went to great lengths in order to kidnap and kill our beloved Vitalija.
Her son clung to the glimmer of hope that she was still alive and would come back to him.
Rimas had the power to end that pain and uncertainty and allow his own son to start to grieve.
He selfishly chose not to do so however, and has continued to prolong that suffering through his lies and denial as he sought to save his own skin.
There can be no justification for the level of violence he used against such a kind and gentle woman who posed no threat to him."
