A SELF-centred Cradley Heath man with "an unhealthy obsession with weapons" has been jailed for life after he viciously stabbed his loving partner to death with a swordstick.

Judge James Burbidge QC told 55-year-old Ronald Cooke he had made much of Tina Billingham's recent life a misery before plunging the swordstick twice into her body in temper.

The judge told Cooke: "She was really frightened of you because of your aggressive and controlling behaviour, she was selfless and you were entirely selfish."

Telling Cooke he must spend a minimum of 24 years behind bars for the brutal murder, the judge added: "You used a ferocious weapon after treating her abysmally all day."

He said Cooke, who made a living buying and selling motor vehicles, had been in a mood and he directed his anger and hostility towards his partner of 17 years - a woman described as always showing kindness to others.

Cooke, of Granville Road who, like his partner, has two children from a previous relationship had denied murdering Miss Billingham after they had argued inside his van.

But the jury after retiring to consider the evidence for nearly five hours returned a unanimous guilty verdict - a decision that brought tears from members of her family in the courtroom.

In a victim impact statement Miss Billingham's son Jack said her death had shattered their lives and "left a void that will never be filled."

He went on: "A piece of the jigsaw has gone. Grief has drained us physically and mentally. Our lives will never be the same again."

Cooke had maintained the 54-year-old stabbed herself with the swordstick but Mr Billingham added: "She would never have taken her own life no matter how hard it got."

Kevin Grego, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court after the verdict that Cooke had a large collection of swords and knives at his home and he drove around with the swordstick in his vehicle.

It had been kept in an accessible position, said Mr Grego - so it was available if the situation arose where it needed to be used.

The trial was told Cooke accepted he had at times behaved badly during his relationship with Miss Billingham and he had confessed to having an affair - a fact that made her burst into tears.

He told the jury there were times when, regrettably he was abusive, he was to a degree controlling and he had been physically violent.

Cooke said he did not realise she had been unhappy in the relationship but he was aware she was depressed. He said she told him, "If I had a knife I would kill myself," adding, "The next thing I was aware of she was holding the knife to her stomach."

Andrew Jackson, defending, said it was accepted the pair had been in a "difficult" relationship punctuated with violence - a fact Cooke made clear to the jury.

And he stressed that Cooke who held his hands up and shook his head towards his family as he was lead from the dock to begin his sentence had a "genuine and noticeable love" for Miss Billingham.

The judge said Miss Billingham was a "woman of kindness with a loving disposition" and he told Cooke, "I do not believe in your moment of anger that you intended anything other than to kill her."

He said he was dealing with Cooke on the basis that he immediately regretted what he had done because he drove her straight to Rowley Heathcare in Hawes Lane, Rowley Regis to seek assistance.

The judge told Cooke that he would only be allowed back onto the streets when the parole board felt it was the right time.

Detective Inspector Harry Harrison, from West Midlands Police homicide unit, said: “Cooke was clearly a bully and was the root cause of an awful lot of misery in Tina’s life, arrogant to the end he has shown no remorse.  Men with his character traits have no place in a civilised society, he has now rightly been brought to justice.”