Dalton, who ran a language school, killed his wife -- identified as Tae-hui ? by striking her during what he said was an argument. He fled to Japan after cutting her body into nine parts with an electric saw and putting them in the freezer. U.K. police persuaded Dalton to come back and give himself up. He was charged with first-degree murder since he hit her hard enough to break her jaw and cause her to bleed to death, and instead of calling an ambulance dismembered her body and fled ? actions that would indicate intent.

But Dalton testified he had been the victim of relentless verbal abuse from his domineering wife for several years and caused her death with a single punch while in an excited state when she “taunted him with an affair,” the paper said. His lawyers also stressed that he had no prior record and did not intend to kill his wife or wield a deadly weapon. They repeatedly appealed to the jury to take into consideration the couple's seven-year-old daughter.

The jury accepted Dalton's argument and convicted him of manslaughter.

The chairman of the U.K.’s Korean Residents' Society, Shin Woo-seung, said there was a problem with balance “with evidence from the victim's side not being given proper consideration in the course of the trial... We plan to gather senior Koreans and representatives in Britain to discuss a response, and make this a public issue by conducting memorial ceremonies and candlelight vigils."

(englishnews@chosun.com )