SWANSEA, Wales, March 30 (UPI) -- A 55-year-old man was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison Thursday for killing a woman in Wales who was tortured for her bank card identification number.
The sentence was handed down after a jury in Crown Court in Swansea convicted John William Mason of Llandissilio following less than 2 hours of deliberation, the Western Telegraph reported.
Mr. Justice Wyn Williams told Mason he is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. The judge called the killing of Angelika Dries-Jenkins, 66, "brutal, heartless and despicable."
Dries-Jenkins' body was found by her daughter at her home in Narberth, where Mason had lived previously. Prosecutors said Mason tortured the victim until she revealed the personal identification number for her bank card, and then killed her, stole her car and drove to a cash machine.
Mason, who was unemployed, was planning to marry in nine days. He ordered a wedding ring and made other purchases but was arrested a week after the killing while he and his fiancee fished at a reservoir.
After the jury returned its verdict, the prosecutor revealed Mason had a record of violence, including trying to kill himself by setting himself on fire. He was under a community service order for threatening his fiancee's grandson.
