A German husband who killed his Filipino wife and sliced her body into eight pieces because she stood in the way of his Thailand sex holiday has been jailed for life.

Horst Koenig, 53, bludgeoned his 37-year-old Filipino wife Grace with a hammer when she was fast asleep in bed.

He then sliced her body with a reciprocating saw and bundled the parts into a rented warehouse locker before jetting off to Thailand for an 'exciting' getaway.

Today he was found guilty of the 'particularly callous' crime and sentenced to life in prison.

Koenig turned a ghostly white when District Judge Christoph Wiesner in Augsburg, Bavaria announced his verdict saying: 'Such a motive is shocking for the court.'

Horst Koenig (left), 53, bludgeoned his 37-year-old Filipino wife Grace (right) with a hammer when she was fast asleep in bed

He previously admitted he killed his wife of ten years and cleared out her bank account so he could enjoy a 'booze and hookers' holiday in the far east.

At Augsburg State Court he confessed to plotting the murder and described in detail how he planned it and carried it out.

'I had check lists made, I worked it all out,' the chemical laboratory assistant told judges.

Grace, from the Philippines, had endured a marriage filled with his infidelity, said prosecutors. He wanted to take a sex holiday but knew she would 'have to be out of the way,' they said in court.

On 19 November 2015 he a leased warehouse in Augsburg where he installed a computer to research how to kill a person with a single blow to the head.

When the computer was later found by police they found other searches for 'how to prevent decay' in a corpse and visits to anatomy sites.

On November 28 he bought a 5lb hammer and duct tape. Two days later, while she was asleep in bed, he whacked her on the temple and then slipped a plastic bag over her head, leading to her death by suffocation.

I had check lists made, I worked it all out

The following day, December 1, he bought industrial strength rubbish sacks and construction foam used to seal windows and doorframes. Then he popped along to his local travel agents to buy the tickets for his Thailand trip.

He packed his bags and then using a reciprocating saw sliced her body into eight parts and stuffed them into the plastic bags.

The day after, he went back to his secret computer in the warehouse and tapped into a search engine; 'When does a body begin to smell?'

Having found the answer he returned home and smothered all the body parts with the construction foam and brought them to the warehouse.

Before he flew to Thailand on December 2 he typed e-mails to friends and family members of Grace saying she had left him to return to the Philippines 'but that I will win her back.'

Horst Koenig flew to Pattaya in Thailand (file photo) where he met up with a woman he chatted with on the internet

In Pattaya he met up with a woman he chatted with on the Internet. He told the court: 'What she promised seemed exciting and many of my secret desires seemed to come true. I wanted to be with this woman.'

Five weeks later, when his money was spent on Thai prostitutes and his visa had expired, Koenig returned to Germany where he was arrested.

The court said Koenig acted out of treachery and greed.

The judge said: 'You can decide for yourself, whether you make true the words you spoke during the trial and accept the blame for which you have been charged.'

Grace's sisters were relieved by the verdict. Their lawyer Mandana Mauss, 45, said: 'They did not want revenge. They wanted justice for their sister. Now they can put the ordeal behind them.'