Wellington man Michael Preston has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 19 years for the murder of his estranged wife Mei Fan.
He has also been sentenced to one year in prison for breaching a protection order Ms Fan, 37, took out against him the night before the murder. The sentence will be served concurrently.
The father of Ms Fan suffered a stroke when he heard the news his daughter had been killed.
She was murdered in November 2013.
A victim impact statement was read to court today on behalf of her father who lives in inner Mongolia
In it he said the pain that has been inflicted on his family since his daughter's death is simply indescribable.
He said they've been tormented both mentally and physically.
Preston, 60, was found guilty of the murder on November 23 following five weeks of frequently graphic, bloody and highly emotional testimony in the High Court at Wellington.
He stabbed Ms Fan 38 times in a frenzied attack in her Miramar home in November 2013, leaving the knife embedded in her neck.
Her body was later found lying in a pool of blood on the laundry floor.
He killed his estranged wife because of a custody dispute over the couple's two children, the Crown said.