Mortgage broker who strangled his 'gym bunny' wife to death after sex to cash in on her life insurance and pay off £300,000 debt is jailed for life

A mortgage broker who strangled his businesswoman wife in a ‘brutal and determined’ attack at their £1.2 million home after his debts spiralled to nearly £300,000 was jailed for life today.

Robert Hammond, 47, was ordered to serve a minimum of sentence of 24 years before being considered for parole for the murder of his ‘gym bunny’ wife Sian after nearly 30 years marriage.

The father-of-two had paid off arrears on his wife’s life insurance policy just days before he killed her to ensure that he would get a £450,000 payout in the event of her death.

Hammond was last week found guilty of murder at Cambridge Crown Court after his trial heard how he had sex with Sian, 46, before strangling her in their bed on the night of October 29 last year.

Prosecutors had called for him to be sentenced to a minimum of 30 years, saying the murder was pre-meditated and was an act of domestic violence carried out for a financial motive.

The trial heard that Hammond had also carried out internet searches in the days before his wife’s death to research how to kill her with an overdose of Diazepam and by crashing their Ford Focus car after disabling the passenger airbag.

But Mr Justice Kavanagh told Hammond that the murder was an ‘unusual’ case and he could not ‘be sure’ that his ‘primary motive’ was an ‘expectation of gain from her death’ at their home in Histon near Cambridge.

The judge said: ‘Whilst the murder of your wife was pre-meditated, the killing when it actually took place, was not part of a careful plan. It happened more or less on the spur of the moment.

‘It is not possible to be certain of the immediate trigger, as Sian is unable to give evidence about it and your evidence cannot be trusted.

‘It may be that a sudden argument developed because Sian had discovered the debt problem and the lies you had told in order to delay payment.

‘It may be that Sian made clear that she was not going to co-operate with your plans to deal with the debts. 

'It may be that that, all of a sudden the stress and strain of dealing with your debts had become more than you could handle.

‘You were under very great pressure, and you saw that the comfortable and successful life that you had built for yourself and your family over many years was at risk of coming crashing down.’

He added: ‘I am fully satisfied that at the moment your murdered Sian, you were well aware of the potential financial advantages for you of Sian’s death, and so that you expected to gain from her death.

‘It provided some but not all of the motivation for the killing. This was therefore a murder done in expectation of gain from your wife’s death.’  

But the judge said he was sentencing him on the basis that the gain he expected to make was not ‘uppermost’ in his mind at the time.

 The court heard how the couple’s two teenage daughters as well Sian’s mother and sister, and Hammond’s mother, had written letters, expressing support for him and saying that any lengthy jail sentence would also be a punishment for them.

Hammond’s daughters sat in the front row of the court’s public gallery and stood up before the sentencing to blow kisses at him as he sat in the glass-fronted dock to the side of them.

The judge said: ‘Their support for you is entirely understandable. I have no doubt that your imprisonment for a lengthy period, added to the loss of their mother, will be a heavy burden for your daughters to bear.

‘Similarly, I have no doubt that your imprisonment will be painful for your wider family, but it is important to say that the responsibility for the fact that you face a long prison sentence rests with you and no-one else.’

Mr Justice Kavanagh said he was taking into account the family letters and character evidence from the ‘large number’ of friends, colleagues and clients of Hammond who had lived a previous ‘productive and law-abiding life’ with no history of violence.

The judge said that Hammond and his wife had ‘built up a very comfortable life’ for themselves, jointly running a mortgage broker and financial advisory businesses, and owning a number of properties in addition to their family home

He added: ‘On the face of it, you had an enviable life going on frequent holidays, recently buying a holiday home and assisting your daughters in their sporting achievements. You had a large circle of friends.

‘But behind this façade, cracks were beginning to show. You had over-extended yourself with property renovations.’

 The judge said that Hammond’s debts included more than £190,000 to Legal and General, and £80,000 to HMRC, although he could have paid off the money owed by using his cash reserves and equity in properties jointly owned with his wife

But he added: ‘It is clear that you did not want to do this and thereby lose the nest egg that you had built up over many years.’

Hammond lied repeatedly lied to his creditors during 2023, pretending at times that he had cancer or a mental breakdown, that his wife was ill in hospital and that they were getting divorced.

Mr Justice Kavanagh rejected his claim that Sian was well aware of their debts and had agreed to his ‘strategy of lying’.

He said that she had given no indication to family and friends that they were under financial pressure, and he was sure that she was unaware of it until the weekend of her death or shortly before.

The judge said Sian had defensive injuries on her face and arms and gripping injuries on her arm, demonstrating she had tried to fight back.

He added: ‘There were other injuries on other parts of Sian’s body, including to the back of her head, which showed that the assault on her had been brutal and determined.’

 The judge said heartrate data from Hammond’s Whoop fitness app showed a period of activity, lasting 20 minutes, around the time of the murder.

While a few minutes might have been due to them having sex, the judge said that he was he was ‘satisfied that a significant part of the period of increased heartrate was whilst you were killing your wife’.

Mr Justice Kavanagh rejected defence arguments that Sian may have died from a seizure, telling Hammond: ‘There can be no doubt that you intended to kill your wife. When you did kill her, this was not the work of an instant. You took some minutes to kill her.

‘It is inconceivable that you compressed Sian’s neck until she was clearly unconscious and unresponsive without intending to kill her.’

The judge said that Sian would have ‘suffered terribly’ during the ‘particularly terrifying and horrifying attack’ by the man she loved and ‘should have been able to expect would protect and care for her’.

He told Hammond: ‘Though no weapon was used, the intimate and close-up nature of strangulation made the murder cruel and painful for your victim. She will have known what was happening to her.’

 The judge also said he was satisfied that Hammond did not attempt CPR on his wife, as he claimed he did while following instructions from an ambulance controller after he dialled 999.

He added: ‘During the days that followed, you played the part of the grieving husband. It was only after a forensic post mortem examination had been performed some days later that it became clear that Sian had been strangled to death and you were arrested. You have shown no remorse.’

Describing Sian as a ‘a lovely person’ who was ‘kind, bubbly and friendly’ and a ‘wonderful mother’ as a well as a ‘loving wife’, he said she had many interests and was very keen on fitness, having recently completed her first 10k run.

The judge said: ‘Sian was hardworking and an academic highflyer, and, following a degree in biochemistry, had enjoyed a successful career as a research scientist, of which she was rightly proud, before giving it up to look after the girls and then to join you in business.’

He added that her murder had caused ‘anguish and sadness to many people’ and ‘devastated’ her family as well as depriving her ‘of many more years of happy and fulfilling life.’