A MONEY-obsessed killer who murdered his wife as she was about to win their divorce battle has been told that he must serve at least 16 years behind bars.

Glyn Razzell, who has never expressed remorse for killing his wife Linda or revealed where he disposed of her body, still protests his innocence.

That is despite a Bristol Crown Court jury convicting the then 43-year-old of his wife's murder in 2003, when he was jailed for life.

Now, after reviewing the case at London's Royal Courts of Justice, Mr Justice Pitchers ruled that the minimum jail "tariff" Razzell deserves is 16 years.

That means even after time on remand before his trial, Razzell cannot apply for parole until 2019.

The judge said the couple married in 1983 and had four children. But in 1999 Mrs Razzell confessed to her husband that she had had a brief affair and their marriage declined.

Razzell, who worked for financial company Allied Dunbar, began a new relationship and his wife launched divorce proceedings in 2000. He moved out soon afterwards, leaving her to look after their children.

As the divorce case ground on, Razzell was ordered to pay £650 a month in child maintenance.

He lost his job in 2001 and the battle between husband and wife moved on to his lump sum severance package.

In 2002, Mrs Razzell's solicitors obtained a freezing order against her husband's bank account and the judge said he must have realised that he was likely to lose his share of the matrimonial home and some of his severance package.

Mr Justice Pitchers said the move would have angered Razzell as he "placed an exceptionally high importance on money and would have been extremely resentful that his wife seemed to be getting the better of him."

On March 19, 2002, Mrs Razzell set out for work in Swindon and was seen parking in her normal place in Old Walcot before setting off down an alleyway. She never arrived at her office and has not been seen since.

Her mobile phone was later found in the alley and it was the prosecution's case that her husband lay in wait, bundled her into a car he had borrowed from a friend and, having killed her, disposed of her body in countryside.

The judge said the jury at Razzell's trial had rejected as inaccurate several suggested sightings of Mrs Razzell after her disappearance.

Described as a devoted mother, who had made no preparations to disappear and who had recently formed a new relationship with another man, the judge said that, despite her husband's denials, the evidence that she was dead was overwhelming.

Setting Razzell's minimum jail tariff at 16 years, the judge described him as an obsessive planner who had made notes of meetings and flowcharts linked to possible outcomes of his wife's disappearance.

The arrangement to swap cars for the day with a friend would have enabled him to approach his wife without arousing her suspicions, the court heard.

Describing it as a planned killing carried out in cold blood, the judge added: "His motive was partly money and partly anger that his wife was getting the better of him. The sums involved were not large, but they meant a great deal to him.

"He came across as an extremely unemotional man who looked first at the financial consequences of his actions."

Observing that there were no mitigating features, the judge said that, were Razzell being sentenced for the first time, under tougher guidelines now in force, he would have given him an 18-year minimum jail term.