A top banker with HSBC was jailed for eight years by a court in London on Wednesday for strangling his wife during a row after she said she wanted a divorce. Neil Ellerbeck, a chief investment officer for HSBC Asset Management, was described as "secretive" and "obsessively jealous" by a judge at England's Old Bailey central criminal court after it emerged he had bugged wife Kate's phone calls and suspected her of infidelity.
She died last November after the couple were involved in a struggle lasting nearly an hour at their plush home in north London, the court heard. "Your frustration erupted that morning when it became clear that your wife was serious about divorce and it was then that you applied sustained and deliberate pressure to her neck," judge Roger Chapple told him. "You are not generally and never have been a violent man. You achieved a great deal in your life.