Murderer gets date to ask for freedom

Mar 12 2008 by Aaron Boland, Liverpool Daily Post

A KEEN yachtsman who murdered his wife, and then claimed she had killed herself, can ask to be freed in three years time following a High Court ruling yesterday.

Paul Simon Longworth, from Southport, Merseyside, was found guilty of murdering his wife, Tina, in February, 1999.

He had strangled her in early January, 1997, and then hung her body from the banisters of their home with a sailing rope while their young children slept nearby.

Following his trial, Longworth was jailed for life.

After reviewing the case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Goldring set his tariff, the minimum number of years he must spend behind bars, at 14 years.

Given the time he spent on remand, the judge's ruling means Longworth, 38 at the time he was sentenced, can ask to be freed in 2011.