Online Gambling Boss Jailed 14 Years for Murder of Wife

The boss of an online gaming company who stabbed his wife to death as she slept in their bedroom was jailed for at least 14 years at the Old Bailey today.

Mark Campbell, 53, knifed her five times in head, face and neck after his Spanish-born wife said she was leaving him and had met another man.

Olga Pleguezuelos, who was 18 years younger, had just got a new job in Las Vegasand met a new man.

On her return to Britain she was sent a text by her new friend and within an hour she was dead in the flat on the edge of the Harrow school grounds.

Campbell, a former millionaire who had run up massive debts, claimed he was provoked and suffered a "sudden and temporary loss of self control".

But Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, told the jury: "There was nothing sudden and temporary about it. In the end he simply refused to take the rejection and it all boiled down to a sadly depressing and familiar theme - if I can't have you nobody can."

Campbell started the attack as his victim slept but she fought back and made it to the edge of the bedroom before he finished her off in the corner.

In an attempt to cover up his true motive he cut his own neck and wrists without doing himself any real harm.

The jury found him guilty of murder in October last year.

Imposing a life sentence, Judge Anthony Morris aid Campbell had been convicted on "extremely strong evidence."

He added: "It is rare for these courts to have a case where nobody has a bad word to say about the victim but this is such a case.

"She has been described as 'a shining star and beautiful inside and out.'"

He said Campbell was "loud and loved the spotlight" but when his career went into a tailspin and his wife's took off he increasingly resented her success.

It was "a terrible irony" that her generosity in trying to let her husband down gently by telling him that "she loved him but was not in love with him" was to cost her her life.

Twice-married Campbell and Ms Pleguezuelos, 35, had wed in 2008 but his debts had imposed an impossible strain on the marriage.

He had founded the online gaming company Gem Lifestyle and made his fortune from floating several dotcom companies, including a firm called Jazztel worth an estimated £3million.

The couple had worked together on a multi-million pound casino building project called Gran Scala in Spain, designed to rival Las Vegas.

Mr Campbell was the chief information officer on the project for a company called International Leisure Development.

The scheme later ran into difficulties, with reports that ILD was failing to meet deadlines for the start of construction of the project.

His high-flying wife, who came from Barcelona and spoke four languages, led a glamorous lifestyle travelling to Spain, Australia and Las Vegas on business.

They separated in April last year before patching up their differences until she was promoted to a high powered position in another gaming company, Aristocrat Technologies, which manufactures slot machines.

Seven days before she was killed she contacted her husband from Las Vegas and in an online Skype conversation told him the marriage was over.

She was described in court as "hard working, bubbly and independent personality" and Campbell was "emotionally dependent on her".

She returned to Britain just two days before the murder to find that Campbell had placed love hearts around the flat and put special pictures on the walls.

In the witness box he broke down in tears and sobbed: "I never wanted to hurt my love." He said he had no memory of inflicting the fatal knife injuries.

From ThisIsLondon.com