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A German husband who killed his wife and sliced her body into eight pieces in order to go to Thailand on a sex holiday has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Horst Koenig, 53, became pale in the face after the district court in Augsburg, in the German state of Bavaria, found him guilty of having murdered his 37-year-old Filipino wife Grace.

Even though the German computer expert was sentenced to life imprisonment, he might be eligible for early release when he is 74 years old under German law.

Judge Christoph Wiesner said: "Such a motive is shocking for the court."

The court said the meticulously planned murder was executed with a hammer weighing almost 5lbs when Grace was asleep, and then involved the disposal of the corpse by cutting it into pieces.

(Image: Getty)

They described it as "particularly callous."

The judge said that Koenig spent a whole month researching how to make the death of his wife as effective as possible and to make the dissected corpse disappear long enough in order to "give him enough time to spend happy hours in Thailand."

After her death, he had cleared the bank accounts of his wife who he married ten years ago in the Philippines.

Afterwards, he booked his flight to Thailand for a sex holiday and rented a locker in a warehouse to dispose of the body parts.

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

(Image: Getty)

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."

The sisters of the victim reacted with relief at 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."