Man strangled his wife after nightmare
A JEALOUS husband is beginning a life sentence for strangling his devoted wife in their bed after he had a nightmare that she was having an affair.
Romanian Florin Codreanu, 30, throttled his English bride Marie, 27, with one hand when he woke in January.
Afterwards he tried desperately, but in vain, to revive college lecturer Marie and she died in the bedroom of their home in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Codreanu had mistakenly believed Marie was about to leave him and flew into a rage when she suggested he see a psychiatrist about his bad dreams.
Codreanu must serve a minimum of 15 years in jail after being convicted of murder.
Mrs Justice Julia Macur told him: “This truly is a tragic case. You have been convicted of the murder of a wife I have no doubt you loved dearly.
“There is nothing to suggest you weren’t deliriously happy in each other’s company until that weekend when something went very much awry.
“You were raised to anger and fury by the benign comments of your wife. She died at your hands. She was on the threshold of her life. She anticipated being married to you for a long time and bearing your children.”
Stafford Crown Court heard how the couple had met in 2003 when both were working at the luxury Nidd Hall Hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Marie was then working as a member of the entertainment staff at the four-star hotel while Codreanu born in Brasov, Romania, worked as a waiter after graduating from Transylvania University.
In July 2005 the couple moved to Romania but returned to Britain in October 2006 and married in Skegness, Lincolnshire, in 2007, before settling in Lichfield, when he got a job as an engineer.
Last year she landed a job as an associate lecturer in performing arts at Sutton Coldfield College and the couple talked about starting a family.
But then trouble in the marriage began to disrupt their happiness and plans for the future when last Christmas Codreanu became terrified of losing his job because of rumours that half the workforce was going to be laid off due to the recession.
The stress fuelled an unfounded fear that his wife was having an affair with someone and he became obsessed that she was going to leave him.
Prosecutor Kevin Hegarty QC said that in reality she was “devoted to him” and that in fact she “loved him to bits”.
But on the night she died, Codreanu had nightmares and his wife’s suggestion that he see a psychiatrist triggered a “big, big fight”. Ambulance staff were called to their house shortly before 11.30am on Sunday, January 17. It was there that the paramedics pronounced her dead.
A pathologist later found 25 injuries to Marie’s head and neck. Codreanu denied murder but was convicted on Friday after a week‑long trial.
Outside court, Det Chief Insp Brandon Langley said: “Our sympathies go to Marie’s family and friends who have conducted themselves with immense courage and dignity throughout the trial. There is simply no excuse for domestic abuse.”
Marie’s parents Bernard and Christine Cannon, brother Simon and sister Michelle, said: “Marie was a beautiful person who brought love, fun and laughter into everyone’s life.
“All her family, friends and colleagues are totally devastated by what has happened.”
