A MAN who “massacred” his wife has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.

A judge told Sandor Lakatos that his failure to seek help for his depression had probably cost Maria Szarvak her life.

On Friday jurors had cleared the 38-year-old of murder deciding he was guilty of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

His 15-day trial had heard how Lakatos stabbed Maria nine times on July 7 last year after she taunted him about her affairs with other men. He left the knife sticking out of her chest as she lay dying at their home in Harcourt Road, Bitterne, Southampton.

Lakatos phoned 999 then drove to Milford on Sea and waded into the sea to try and drown himself but then returned to be arrested.

The trial heard that the couple, both trained pharmacists, had been married for ten years but their relationship was in trouble and Maria had lovers whom she met through the internet since they moved to England from Hungary in 2009.

In passing sentence, Judge Guy Boney QC told Winchester Crown Court that most of the stab wounds Maria received would have been sufficient to kill her.

He said: “What followed was an utterly dreadful attack in which you massacred your wife, it’s the only word to describe it.”

Nigel Lickley QC, mitigating, said his client had shown genuine remorse and would bear the responsibility for what he had done for the rest of his life.

He said Lakatos’ suicide attempt was genuine, he was of previous good character, had no criminal history and no history of violence in his marriage and that there had been no planning or pre-meditation in what happened. “This is not a situation as one often finds of the very tragic battered and harassed wife,” he said.

Judge Boney QC said he accepted that Lakatos had admitted the killing, which had not been planned and was “deeply regretted”.

Although he said Lakatos’ responsibility for the killing was substantially impaired by his state of mind, he said he must bear responsibility for not seeking help earlier.

He said Lakatos had told of two occasions leading up to what happened where he had exploded.

He said: “Where your responsibility wasn’t diminished was in allowing that state of affairs to be built up and allowing your worsening condition to go untreated. The blunt fact is your foolish failure to do that in all probability cost your wife her life.

“I take the view that your responsibility isn’t by any means minimal in these circumstances.”

The year Lakatos has spent on remand will be deducted from the sentence