Melbourne, June 29 (PTI): An Indian father of four who killed his wife after beating her to “pulp” was today sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment by an Australian court.

Judge Terry Forrest of the Victoria Supreme Court said Sukhmander Singh had no remorse for his actions even though he had beaten his wife, Mohinder, to “pulp” with a wooden stake while on a stroll here in May last year. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 13 years and six months before being eligible for parole.

A forensic pathologist described multiple skull and facial bone fractures among other injuries to Mohinder and estimated a minimum of three or four blows to the scalp-forehead region with further blows to the mid-facial and neck area. “In short, you beat your wife, the mother of your children, to a pulp,” the judge said.

One of the couple’s children, their daughter Sarabjit Kaur, 21, studies in Melbourne. Mohinder came to Australia first. Sukhmander, who had abused his wife for years in India before that, joined his wife and daughter in Melbourne, apparently after promising them good behaviour. But he turned violent later.

He attacked his wife while taking a stroll on Valley Lake Boulevard in Melbourne’s northwest on May 7 last year.

“What followed then was a brutal conclusion to your wife’s life. Mohinder was crying and told Sarabjit that you had taken a wooden stick from the ground. She heard what sounded like a crack, and last words she heard her mother utter were, your father is killing me,” Judge Forrest told Sukhmander.

Sarabjit testified that as long as she could remember, there was fighting and arguments between Singh and his wife, the Age reported. “The children would stay outside the house crying while you set about beating their mother,” the judge told Sukhmander.

He would kick his wife, hit her and inflict pain upon her almost everyday and the beatings would happen almost once a week, the judge said.