JEALOUS husband Brent Mott was last night starting life in prison for murdering his wife.

The nurse was ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years in jail for raping and then strangling Kate Mott, 35, before staging a car crash to try to cover his tracks.

The couple were just days from finalising their divorce when Mott, 32, returned to their Southport home determined to have sex with his estranged wife.

In the hours that followed, he attacked and murdered her before abandoning her body in their car, which he dumped in a farmer’s field.

Jailing him, the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe, QC, said: “You murdered her because you couldn't bear to lose her. You murdered her because you couldn't bear to think of her with anyone else. In your own words: ‘The pain of losing her to another bloke was killing you’.

“And you murdered her for sex. It was done in circumstances of your heightened sexual frustration borne out of your own twisted obsession towards sex.”

Mott, who was wearing a blue suit and open-necked shirt, showed no emotion.

Judge Globe also detailed the “considerable mental suffering” Mrs Mott had endured at the hands of her husband, who told everyone about their lack of physical relationship after she became pregnant with their second child.

After separating in 2009, Mott, who worked alongside his wife at Southport hospital, insisted on moving back into the family home. But, just weeks later, in November, 2009, Mrs Mott got a court order banning her husband from entering a make-shift bedroom she had set up in their Everard Road home and harassing her with his sexual behaviour.

But Judge Globe said the injunction “held no fear” for Mott.

On the day before her death, Mrs Mott had finalised the financial agreement to their divorce and Mott had just 14 days to leave the family home. But, hours later, on January 20, Mott raped and murdered his wife after coming home from the pub. Judge Globe dismissed Mott’s claims his wife had wanted a “last fling”.

The judge said: “This was an intelligent, mature woman who had already arranged for the locks to be changed upon your imminent departure, so desperate was she to see you leave.

“She wouldn't have willingly allowed you to have sexual intercourse with her and risk becoming pregnant in the course of that intercourse.”

He said: “You came home determined to have sexual intercourse with Kate, come what may. It is inconceivable that she would have suggested having, and would actually have had consensual sex with you in these circumstances.

“You raped her at or around the time of killing her.”

After killing his wife, Mott dressed her and gathered a bloodied duvet and clothing. He then dragged her to their car and drove to an isolated field in nearby Scarisbrick where he tried to stage a car accident before hiding the incriminating evidence. His attempts to cover his tracks were yesterday branded “amateurish”.

But, in the hours that followed, he attempted to cover up the murder by sending texts to her phone and calling her mum and the police apparently worried for her safety. It was not until four months later when compelling prosecution evidence was produced that he admitted killing her. Mott denied murder on the grounds of provocation, but his lies were unanimously rejected.