A woman has been jailed for life for murdering her estranged husband whose death she had tried to pass off as a suicide.
Amy Pugh, 34, attacked Kyle Pugh at the home they had shared in Newport, Shropshire, in March 2022 after an argument.
In a bid to cover up her crime, she lied to emergency services that the injuries to an unresponsive Mr Pugh, 29, were self-inflicted, but she was found guilty of murder at Stafford Crown Court in June.
In court on Friday, Pugh was ordered to serve at least 14 years in prison.
In delivering her sentence, Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said there had been a “volatile dynamic” between the couple and conflict had been “fuelled by alcohol and substance abuse”.
“Your relationship was described by everyone, including yourself, as toxic,” she said.
The judge added that Pugh, Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, had initially struck her husband with such force that his nose and eye socket were broken.
During the trial, jurors had heard how the pair argued when Mr Pugh, who was in a new relationship, visited the house just after 20:30 on 22 March three years ago.
Mr Pugh was struck in the face and while he fought back, he was overpowered by his wife who was able to subdue him and deliberately compress his neck “by some means”, perhaps with a chokehold.
Mr Pugh was left unconscious and it was then that she began her attempt to ensure his condition could not be linked to her.
The court heard that when she called emergency services, she told them the neck compression injuries were a result of Mr Pugh’s own actions, and in a 999 call could be heard shouting: “Kyle, wake up, why have you done this?”
Mr Pugh was taken to hospital where he died the following day.
The trial heard that while Mr Pugh did have a history of self-harm and attempts to take his own life, he had sent messages to his girlfriend, his father and his friends on the evening of the attack making plans to see them that night.
The judge said on Friday the killer had “decided to concoct a lie and stage a scene”.
She said that if she had called the emergency services sooner, Mr Pugh might have lived.
But instead, the judge said, she had been “composed enough to tell persuasive and cohesive lies about what had happened”.
She said those lies had been “cynical and cruel” and they had caused Kyle Pugh’s family “significant additional suffering”.
“His family have had to endure repeated investigation and examination of his body and a significant delay to putting their loved one to rest,” she added.
