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A Porirua man has been sentenced to 12 years jail for the manslaughter of Cambodian woman Wathanak Tea.
Malcolm Alan Francis, 54, an invalid beneficiary of Porirua, was last month found guilty by a jury of the manslaughter of Ms Tea, 37.
He had pleaded not guilty to murdering her, a charge which was reduced to manslaughter after an application by his lawyer Mike Antunovic.
Ms Tea's body has never been found.
In the High Court at Wellington today, Justice France sentenced Francis to 12 years in jail, with a minimum non-parole period of eight years -- understood to be the maximum non-parole term available.
Ms Tea disappeared from her suburban Johnsonville flat between December 26 and 29, 2001. Her blood was spattered around the flat.
After Francis was convicted, his history of spousal abuse was revealed.
Police had intended to present evidence of Francis' 1984 conviction for the manslaughter of his second wife, Janet, and testimony from a former partner about his violence. But, at a hearing on December 6, Justice France ruled the evidence out.
Police in Hastings tried to introduce evidence of Francis' violent past during his trial in 1984 for the murder of his second wife, Janet, who was beaten with a frozen dog roll. But details of an attack on his first wife, Francoise, in Chatham, England, in 1975, were ruled out.
Francis was found not guilty of murdering Janet, but guilty of her manslaughter, and sentenced to four years' jail.
- NZPA
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