A "manipulative" and "devious" Pakistani immigrant who murdered his young Bulgarian wife after he had already trawled Facebook for her replacement has been jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years.
Jamshaid Khan, 30, had repeatedly failed in his "desperate" attempts to be allowed to stay in the UK despite his marriage to European citizen Milena Yulianova.
When the 27-year-old masseuse refused to help in his latest bid for permanent residency, he stabbed her 14 times at his home in Forest Gate, east London, in January last year.
Even before the killing, the court heard the construction worker had tried to find other eastern European women on Facebook who he thought might help him and even claimed to one that Ms Yulianova had died in a car crash.
Khan denied murder and claimed he had acted in self defence after his wife of 15 months produced the knife during a row. But the jury rejected his defence and found him guilty of murder at the Old Bailey on Monday.
Sentencing today, judge Stephen Kramer QC told him: "I am satisfied you are a manipulative, devious and deceitful man who wriggled and writhed your way through the trial."
On the events leading up to the killing, he said: "Whether or not the marriage was a marriage of convenience and a sham from the outset, I am satisfied by 2013 you wanted Milena's help to further you application for permanent residency in this country.
"You pursued more than one application for residency here. Your application was rejected. You were in dire need of her support.
"Matters came to a head on the afternoon of January 28 when you failed to go with her to a bank to open an account. You killed Milena in anger because she would not help and support you in your application.
"While the marriage existed in 2014, you were already looking for other eastern European women who you thought could help.
"You were chatting with them on Facebook. You told one of the women on Facebook that Milena had died in a car accident. Those conversations indicate you were already contemplating you might feel the need to replace her."
Earlier in mitigation, Sarah Forshaw QC had told the court that Khan had been traumatised after witnessing Taliban killings when he lived on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He had arrived in Britain in 2011 and had converted to Christianity, the court heard.
And as a result of his murder conviction, he now faces the almost certain prospect of being deported back to Pakistan upon his release from jail.
The trial had heard how passers-by tried to revive Mrs Khan after hearing someone had stabbed his wife in Nigel Road, Forest Gate, east London on the afternoon of January 28 last year.
A man in a nearby takeaway rushed to help and saw Khan come out of his house with blood on his hands and stop a passing car.
Paramedics who were called to the scene treated the Bulgarian national for stab wounds to the chest and arm.
A kitchen knife was found on the floor of the living room and Khan was arrested at the scene.
Meanwhile, his wife was taken to Newham General Hospital where she died that evening. The fatal wound to the heart was 8cm in depth.
Judge Kramer commended the "immense public service" of three of the trial witnesses who had come to the victim's aid and awarded each of them £500.