Man jailed for life for wife's rape and murder
Kimberley Thompson was murdered in August 2025
A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 33 years after being convicted of the rape and murder of his estranged wife.
Michael Thompson, 56, from Northampton, declined to enter Nottingham Crown Court for his sentencing hearing earlier this week.
On Wednesday, he was found guilty of killing Kimberley Thompson, 43, at their home on Pinewood Road, Northampton, last August. He subsequently attempted to disguise her death as a suicide.
Judge Nirmal Shant KC said Thompson showed an "ultimate act of cowardice and contempt" as he refused to attend the court to "hear from the family of the grief you have caused".
Michael Thompson was found guilty after a six-week trial
Thompson was also convicted at Nottingham Crown Court on two counts of perverting the course of justice.
The court heard that he subjected Kimberley to years of domestic abuse, including controlling and coercive behaviour as well as physical violence. He recorded hundreds of hours of her before suffocating her at their home sometime between midnight and 03:30 BST on 9 August.
During the six-week trial, Thompson claimed they had consensual sex before he later discovered his wife lifeless and surrounded by tablets and alcohol bottles.
Kimberley's family and friends informed police that they did not believe she had taken her own life and described a history of domestic abuse, prompting detectives to initiate a murder investigation.
A post-mortem examination revealed no alcohol in her system and only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol, and codeine.
The couple had been married for 19 years, had two children, were separated, and divorce proceedings had been initiated at the time of the killing.
At sentencing Shant said: "You have shown no remorse. Throughout the course of the trial you sat in the dock shaking your head and making audible noises of dissent. And in the ultimate act of cowardice and contempt, you have refused to come into court to hear from the family of the grief you have caused."
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