Thomas Peter, 50, made so much noise while killing Karen Peter at their property in Valentines Way that their three daughters were awoken.
One of them called 999 and told the operator “I think my mother has been strangled.”
Smoke began emanating from their parents’ bedroom and the daughters, aged 22, 20 and 14, discovered the doors to the home had been locked.
The fire brigade put out the blaze but found Karen badly hurt inside the house. A piece of cloth had been shoved inside her throat to muffle her screams while Thomas strangled her.
A pathologist said the strangulation had been for a ‘sustained and significant period’.
He had taken out a £300,000 insurance policy on Karen’s life.
“Peter’s actions were sustained and deliberate, he meant to kill Karen,” said Detective Sergeant, Perry Benton. “He then callously set fire to her body and the house in a bid to destroy evidence, also putting his daughters’ lives at risk.
“Throughout this whole period, Peter did not demonstrate one ounce of compassion or concern for his wife or children.
“Peter refused to admit his guilt and has selfishly forced his daughters to re-live that awful morning at trial.”
Today, he was found guilty of murder and arson with intent to endanger life at the Old Bailey.
He will be sentenced at the same court on Monday, 11 February.
The couple had been married since 1994 but Peter was abusive, controlling and unfaithful.
In 2010 Karen filed for divorce but, following an incident in which squeezed her throat until she couldn’t breathe, they remarried in 2012.
Just before her death, Karen reportedly told her daughter she was unhappy but was described as “growing in confidence.”
Her friends quoted her saying “I want my life back.”
Prior to her death, Karen told Peter she wanted to separate from him again.
She had also confided in a friend that she had met “someone special” but feared Peter would “kill her” if he found out.
Tags: Barking and Dagenham, Rush Green
