An "evil" pharmacist has been jailed for life after murdering his wife so he could start a new life with his boyfriend in Australia.

Mitesh Patel, 37, received a minimum sentence of 30 years for killing Jessica Patel at their Middlesbrough home in May.

Patel injected the 34-year-old with insulin and strangled her with a Tesco "bag for life".

He then staged a break-in to make it look like an intruder had attacked her and bound her with tape.

Jailing him at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday, Mr Justice Goss told Patel: "You have no remorse for your actions.

"Any pity you have is for yourself."

The victim's younger sister, Divya, had read a statement on behalf of the victim's sisters and close cousins ahead of the judge passing sentence.

She said: "The one thing we hope and prayed for, above anything else, was that in her final moments she did not suffer.

"The cruel reality is that she did in fact suffer, she knew exactly who her killer was, and he mercilessly ignored her attempts to fight for her own life as he ended it.

"We can only imagine the fear and panic she must have felt knowing herself this was it. Thinking of that moment makes our hearts so heavy."

Addressing her brother-in-law in the dock, she said: "As will she rest in heaven, you will rot in hell."

She added: "Only Mitesh himself can truly answer why he did this. Everything he has done has been purely for selfish reasons.

"He could've divorced her, taken everything he wanted - he did not need to take her life, he had no right to take this evil, cruel and malicious step."

Patel had been found guilty on Tuesday after a 12-day trial.

The couple ran a successful pharmacy together but their marriage was unhappy, with the husband repeatedly seeking sex with men he met on the Grindr dating app.

And he was secretly in a relationship with his "soulmate" boyfriend, who had emigrated to Sydney.