A Co Galway man has been sentenced to life imprisonment by an Old Bailey judge in London for the murder of his wife 20 years ago.
Patrick Folan (46) of Upper Holloway, north London was charged with strangling his wife and burying her body in a shallow grave on a building site where he worked as a bricklayer. Ms Michelle Folan's remains lay undiscovered until builders dug up her body in 1999.
A plastic bag covered her head. She had been strangled with a rope which was tightened with a stick.
In autumn 1981, Ms Folan went to see a solicitor about divorce, the court heard.A divorce petition was posted to her for her approval. This could have arrived on the last day she was seen alive, said Mr William Boyce QC, prosecuting.
"The document was never found. You will have to consider whether that was the trigger that caused her death or a combination with something else."
The building, constructed in 1981, was demolished in 1999, when workers on the site discovered Ms Folan's remains.
Mr Boyce told the court: "She had been buried almost immediately after she was murdered by her husband.
It was only by chance that the site was being redeveloped and that the builders noticed it.
"He was successful in concealing her murder for so long. He then brought up their children, then aged three years and 16 months."
Judge Brian Barker told Folan: "I accept that you have been a good father to your children and you have brought them up well.
"But by your calculating actions, you took away their mother who also loved them. This was a deliberate and efficient killing and disposal of the body."