Pensioner gets 15 years for murdering wife

A Dutch pensioner has been jailed for 15 years after he was convicted of cold-bloodedly murdering his Irish wife at their home in the Netherlands.

Passing sentence on Arnold Viguurs, aged 63, yesterday, the three-judge court in the city of s’Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) described the violent death last November of Martina O’Brien Viguurs, bludgeoned with a hammer and then strangled by her husband as “a shocking act of violence”.

The punishment is very severe by Dutch standards as the accused had no previous convictions. In their judgment, the court said a severe punishment was necessary because of “the immense pain, suffering, and loss her death had caused to her eight children and 11 grandchildren”.