Rex Prole, the Tauranga builder who stabbed his estranged wife Robyn to death with a kitchen knife has been sentenced to life in prison.
The details of Robyn Anne Prole's death on July 20, 2012, were revealed after her 65-year-old husband pleaded guilty to her murder in Rotorua High Court on April 9 this year.
Today, in the same court, Justice Kit Toogood sentenced Prole to life, with a non-parole period of 11 years and six months.
He described the killing as "particularly brutal'' and twice expressed his condolences to Mrs Prole's family and a neighbour who witnessed the stabbing.
The couple, who had been married two years, had lived together in Bell St, Judea until April 2012 when Mrs Prole - a teacher aide at Brookfield Primary School _ moved out to live with friends after reporting a domestic violence incident to police.