A MAN sentenced to life behind bars for the brutal murder of his ex-wife will not be freed until at least December 2011, after a decision by a High Court judge.

Ian McMinn, aged 55, of Cairngorm Drive, Ladybridge, admitted murdering Geraldine McMinn in 2002.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment at Manchester Crown Court with a minimum term of 10 years.

Yesterday, after a review of the case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, High Court judge Mr Justice Bean upheld the minimum term.

The decision means that McMinn will not be allowed to apply for his release until at least December, 2011.

The judge told how McMinn had felt aggrieved at the financial settlement of his divorce from his wife and considered himself "ruined".

On December 7, 2001, he stabbed her three times in the back with a knife, before dumping the weapon and his bloodstained coat in a bin at his mother's house.

He confessed the killing to his then girlfriend, Kathleen McCorley, who informed police.

Arguing for a lesser jail term than that originally recommended, lawyers for McMinn argued he had shown great remorse.

He had also suffered severe health problems, including two heart attacks, and would need a knee replacement operation, his lawyers said.

Refusing to grant the reduction, the judge said: "I consider that it would require expert evidence of exceptionally severe ill health to justify a reduction in the minimum term necessary to meet the requirements of retribution and general deterrence in a case of murder."