London, Dec 19 : A UK court sentenced a man to three years in prison for killing his wife by hurling a remote control on her head.

Paul Harvey, 46, an electrical engineer threw the four-ounce remote at his US diplomat wife Gloria Laguna during a quarrel at home.

Laguna, 48, who suffered from a defect to the vertebral artery at the back of her head, was rushed to the hospital after she collapsed on the spot.

Doctors declared her dead the next morning.

“By fluke chance it landed at the exact spot where she had this congenital weakness,” the Daily Express quoted Harvey’s lawyer Jonathan Goldberg QC, as telling the Old Bailey.

The court was told that the couple had a petty row about his former wife’s stepdaughter as they sat watching TV at their flat in Euston, north- west London, on March 22.

The court also heard that the husband-wife due had consumed cocaine on the night of the incident.

Harvey called up at 999 and told the operator: “I threw the TV digital at her and hit her on the head.”

When paramedics arrived, he said: “I think I have killed my wife. I threw a remote control at my wife’s head.”

Doctors at the hospital found that Laguna had suffered a brain haemorrhage.

Harvey was initially charged with murder but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

“He is deeply ashamed and remorseful for the loss of his wife because she was a fine woman. All he did was to throw the TV control in her general direction. He was throwing it at her in a moment of pique and anger,” Goldberg said.

Harvey’s convictions for violence date back to 1987 and include head butting a police officer, smashing a glass pane after missing a train and punching a man in the face.

Judge Giles Forrester told Harvey: “To throw a hard object so as to strike your wife in this way was irresponsible and dangerous.

“There is undoubtedly a streak of violence and anger in your personality. There is no doubt you have a problem with your temper.” (ANI)