Murdered: Zandra Maxwell-Nelson

A father-of-two who stabbed his estranged wife to death in front of their two young sons has been jailed for a minimum of 21 years.

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Nathaniel Brown, 27, knifed 24-year-old Zandra Maxwell-Nelson up to 20 times in a car park in Durban Road, Tottenham, on April 20 last year.

Miss Maxwell-Nelson had taken their children for a picnic in a park with Brown’s sister just before the attack, the Old Bailey heard.

Brown grabbed a kitchen knife from his sister’s home nearby and then calmly stabbed his former partner, continuing as she desperately climbed into her car. He dropped the blade in the street and took off his bloodstained shirt as he walked away, later handing himself into police.

Brown, of no fixed address, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility - but was convicted of murder following a two-week trial.

Jailing him for life with a minimum term of 21 years on Friday, Judge Martin Stephens QC told Brown he was a “controlling and possessive” individual who was unable to accept his wife and sister being friends.

He added: “Nothing the court heard about you from doctors can begin to explain the savage, unremitting attack you launched on a helpless woman - your wife - other than wilful anger.

“All this in the street, in front of your own and other people’s children, and in the view of horrified neighbours.”

He added: “The loss and suffering by your children, and your wife’s mother and family, is unbearable for them. I’m prepared to accept you were facing personality problems throughout this time, but what you did could not be explained by mental abnormality.”