Ilford man sentenced to 18 years for killing his wife

A MAN who was convicted of murdering his wife at their home in East London has been handed life imprisonment.

Forty-one-year-old Muhammad Ilyas of Kingston Road, Ilford, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday (1) and will serve a minimum sentence of 18 years, the Metropolitan Police said in a release.

On June 10, he was found guilty of the murder of Maria Rafael Chavez.

It was on the evening of May 13 last year when police were called after Maria was found unresponsive at a residential property at Kingston Road.

Officers attended along with London Ambulance Service but Maria, 32, was pronounced dead on the spot.

An initial investigation found Maria didn't have any injuries.

Officers thereafter arranged for a special post-mortem examination to ascertain the cause of her death. The procedure was carried out on May 26 and it revealed that Maria had suffered compression to her neck, likely caused by strangulation.

Homicide detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime Command carried out further enquiries that included collecting CCTV evidence and speaking to neighbours.

The information, along with the pathological findings, helped officers establish that Ilyas had killed Maria in the afternoon of May 13.

Ilyas was arrested and interrogated about his involvement in Maria's death. He denied killing Maria and told officers that she had died from natural causes but the findings of the post-mortem examination contradicted his claims.

The couple had moved to the UK in 2019 and Maria was doing a college course to learn English at the time of her death. Ilyas at the time was working on a market stall in Stratford.