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Thompson was also found guilty at Nottingham Crown Court of two counts of perverting the course of justice.
The court heard how he subjected Kimberley to years of domestic abuse, including controlling, coercive behaviour, and physical violence and made hundreds of hours of recordings of her before he suffocated her at their home sometime between midnight and 03:30 BST on 9 August.
During the six-week trial Thompson claimed they had consensual sex before he later found his wife lifeless and surrounded by tablets and alcohol bottles.
Kimberley's family and friends told police they did not believe she had taken her own life, and they described a history of domestic abuse, leading detectives to launch a murder investigation.
A post-mortem examination found no alcohol in her system and only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol and codeine.
The couple had been married for 19 years, had two children, were separated and divorce proceedings had been initiated at the time of the killing.
At sentencing Shant said: "You have shown no remorse.
"Throughout the course of the trial you sat in the dock shaking your head and making audible noises of dissent.
"And in the ultimate act of cowardice and contempt, you have refused to come into court to hear from the family of the grief you have caused."
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