Delivery driver who drowned wife in hot tub jailed

A delivery driver who drowned his wife in a garden hot tub must spend at least 16-and-a-half years in prison before being considered for parole, a judge has ruled.

Andrew Georgiou, 45, admitted murdering mother-of-two Carol Georgiou, 42, at their home in Holywell Place, Milton Keynes, on 2 November 2024.

Prosecutors said the husband would not accept his 19-year marriage was over and had gone into a rage after a night out.

Judge Jonathan Cooper described the murder as "brutal" and handed him a mandatory life sentence on Tuesday, during a hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court.

He told Georgiou: "Carol met her death knowing she was with the person she had chosen to live with, the person she had chosen to have children with, and the person to whom she had given her most intimate trust."

Carol had climbed into the hot tub in early hours after visiting a nightclub with her husband.

The judge said evidence showed she was "intoxicated and naked" - and had struggled before she drowned.

"You had time during the course of your struggle to reflect," Judge Cooper told the husband, "...and desist."

Georgiou, who waited 40 minutes before calling an ambulance, had initially denied murder.

He suggested his wife died of natural causes and did not admit his guilt until late 2025.

Carol's sisters had been suspicious and one told police about their concerns.

The judge said the husband's behaviour after the murder had been "appalling" and a "calculated attempt to mislead everyone".

Judge Cooper heard the couple had met in 2000, married in June 2005, and had two sons, both now adults.

Barrister Pavlos Panayi KC, prosecuting, told the judge that by the time she died, Carol had become "determined" to go through with a divorce.

Panayi said Georgiou knew his wife had been involved with another man and "would not accept" the end of the marriage.

The judge was told things had "come to a head" in the early hours of 2 November 2024.

Panayi said evidence showed the husband "reacted with rage" after being told "we're done".

He said he attacked and drowned his wife as she sat in their garden hot tub.

Sounds of her splashing and fighting for life were picked up by a neighbour's CCTV equipment, Panayi said.

Jenni Dempster KC, for the defence, said the background to the murder was a divorce.

Dempster read extracts from a letter her client had written, at the hearing.

"I feel overwhelmed with shame and regret for what I have done," it said.

"No day passes without Carol being in my mind, and I miss her terribly."

He added: "I am truly sorry for the pain I have caused."

The judge was told that Carol had been one of six sisters. They told him how the murder had affected them.

One of them, Suzanne Butler, described a "monstrous" act, and said: "Since Carol was taken from us our world has turned grey and dark."

Another, Rebekah Eldridge, said the siblings had been a "six-piece puzzle".

"Now that six-piece puzzle is broken," she told the judge.

"It will never be fixed.

"I think about how terrified [Carol] must have been."

She told the judge that Carol's husband had been someone the family trusted.

"None of us could ever have imagined what he was capable of," she said.

"For months he lied to us... he even made jokes."

Judge Cooper praised Carol's relatives for the dignity they had shown during a two-day sentencing hearing.

The judge told them, after Georgiou was sentenced and taken from the dock, that he hoped they would now "make some loud noise in Carol's memory".

He also praised police for their "remarkable" investigative work.

Relatives said, outside court, that Carol was known as "the flamingo" - and they wore scarves bearing flamingo images in her memory.

The Crown Prosecution Service said, after the hearing, that Georgiou pleaded guilty after being faced with "overwhelming evidence".

"After murdering her, he set out to mislead everyone who asked about the circumstances of her death," said lawyer Shan Saunders.

"He immediately began covering his tracks, including checking CCTV footage from his home while travelling with Carol in the ambulance to hospital.

"Working with the police, we analysed CCTV evidence to establish Georgiou's movements on the night to prove that his version of events – that Carol's death had been a tragic accident – was a lie."

Det Insp Michael Roddy, from Thames Valley Police, added that 40 minutes after drowning Carol in the hot tub, Georgiou called 999 "claiming he had been asleep in the house and woke up to find his wife unresponsive".

"For months Andrew Georgiou lied to both his and Carol's family, including their two sons," he said.

"In truth, Andrew Georgiou deliberately killed Carol because he was enraged at their impending divorce."

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.