A wealthy American student, Joshua Michals, 26, has been jailed for life.
It was gathered that Joshua murdered his on-off girlfriend then called his dad to get legal advice instead of phoning 999 It was learnt that he stabbed the girl, ‘gentle’ fellow Goldsmiths’ student Zhe Wang twice in the face and strangled her on March 20 2024.
Straight after the killing, Michals called his father – a high-flying vice president of sales at a US firm – and obtained the details for a solicitor before taking an Uber back to his flat nearby.
It was much later that he phoned the emergency services, seeking to blame Ms. Wang for what happened by claiming he acted in self-defence after she attacked him.
He was convicted by the jury following his trial at the Old Bailey last month.
Delivering judgement, Judge Richard Marks described Michal as callous and thinking only of himself by not raising the alarm after he throttled Ms. Wang – and said the ‘self-interested’ defendant’s account was not believable.
The judge said: “You took no steps to check her pulse, her breathing, took no steps to revive her or call the emergency services. It is highly likely she was still alive and had you called for help she may still be alive today.”
He added: ‘In your fury, you lost complete control of your temper and your senses.’
Michals, wearing a blue jumper over a white shirt, and with his mother in the public gallery, showed little emotion as the sentence was passed.
