AN American millionaire is starting a 16-year life sentence for murdering his wife in what was branded an “unspeakable” attack by a judge.

Harold Landry battered Lucy Landry over the head with a rolling pin before pursuing her through their luxury family home with a carving knife, stabbing her 23 times.

The sentence – which is towards the lower end of what was expected – means Landry will be in his 80s before he can be considered for parole.

Mr Landry’s family welcomed the tariff, saying in a statement: “We are especially thankful for the comments the judge made. It goes some way to ease the pain that we have suffered. However, no amount of years in prison will bring Lucy back.

“This is something all our family will have to try and come to terms with.”

Mr Justice David Foskett said the attack on Mrs Landry on the night of February 1 last year had been “unspeakable and unforgivable”.

Landry stood with hands clasped behind his back showing no emotion as the sentence was read out at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

On Thursday, the jury of eight women and four men took less than three hours to convict Landry.

He had admitted killing his wife at home on the Besford Court estate near Pershore but claimed her unreasonable behaviour during a bitter divorce had provoked him.

The 65-year-old launched a sustained and brutal attack which ended in a rain of blows from a knife, but claimed he could not remember stabbing her.

Landry, who had been married six years, left his wife to die in a hedge with the 8in kitchen knife still sticking out of her.

She was found by neighbour Stephen Kennedy moments later after her screams of help woke him.

It emerged after Thursday’s verdict that Landry had shot a love rival in the head with a pistol at close range in the US in 1994.

But the judge Mr Justice Foskett ruled this evidence inadmissible in the English court despite an application from prosecutors.

The judge told Landry: “They [the jury] did not need to hear about your previous conviction in order to reject the case that you advanced. There is a trait within you that, if provoked and challenged, can lead to serious violence.”

He said Landry’s claim his wife had threatened him with a knife had “all the hallmarks” of a story dreamed up after the fact.

Describing the murder as brutal and vicious, Mr Justice Foskett pointed out that most of the stab wounds suffered by Mrs Landry had been inflicted as she lay on the ground trying to defend herself.

Andy Childs, Landry’s solicitor, said his client would consider his position on appealing the sentence.