Christina Alexander liked to say she’d found her husband the modern way – through online dating.
There was something steady about Robert, a retired mechanic, that appealed to Christina, who worked as a nurse.
When she and Robert married in 2019, it felt like the start of an exciting chapter.
Then in September 2020, cracks appeared when the couple got into a fight.
Police were called after Robert had put Christina in a chokehold, strangled her and bit her cheek. He was convicted of battery and given a community order.
What stuck with investigators later was that Robert seemed most anxious that Christina still knew the PIN code to his bank card.
Nine months later, in June 2021, there was another incident – an argument that ended with Robert brandishing an iron bar at his wife.
Christina called emergency services, telling officers who responded to the call-out that she was ‘living under a constant threat of violence’ while financially dependent on her husband.
A domestic violence protection order was put in place.
Still, Christina and Robert continued living together.
But by 2025, something in Christina had shifted. She began speaking to a solicitor and putting financial arrangements in place to live independently.
‘The sooner he is out of my life the better,’ she told her sister, adding, ‘I’ll probably be dead by then.’
When Robert suspected his wife’s plan, however, he couldn’t stand the thought of letting her go.
He began self-harming, hoping it would convince Christina to stay.
The second time he was even hospitalised.
Then, one morning in June 2025, after he’d been discharged, another call was made to emergency.
This time it was Robert.
‘I’ve disposed of my wife,’ he stated calmly.
‘It’s all to do with money – dictating to me how I spend my inheritance,’ he said. ‘She came into my life about eight years ago with nothing.’
After killing Christina, Robert changed his clothes, put the bins out, and sat down with his dogs to wait for police.
They discovered his violence had been extreme. A forensic pathologist found more than 70 stab wounds across Christina’s face, neck, body, arms and legs.
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She’d also sustained blunt force trauma from being hit with a dog food can, as well as showing signs of strangulation.
Robert Alexander was arrested, charged with Christina’s murder.
Despite his earlier confession, when his trial began in June this year, he claimed he didn’t remember what happened, stating he’d ‘lost the plot’ during the altercation with his wife.
He made claims of acting in self-defence as well as diminished responsibility, claiming his depression and autism reduced his responsibility over the killing, after Christina had reached for a knife first.
But psychiatric experts disputed this, concluding his self-harming was intended to manipulate or control Christina.
The court also heard how, in the lead up to the fatal attack, Alexander had texted Christina, claiming he was still in hospital when he was already on his way home.
When she’d returned to the house, her husband lay in wait.
The evidence suggested that the closer she came to a future without him, the more determined he was to stop her reaching it.
A jury unanimously found Robert Alexander guilty of murder.
Three months later, in September, Robert Alexander, 66, appeared in Stafford Crown Court, UK, for sentencing.
Christina’s brother Neil delivered an impact statement on behalf of the family, describing Christina as the ‘main piece of their family jigsaw’, who was like ‘a second mum to her younger brothers and sisters’.
He went on, ‘From a young age, she always wanted to follow in our mother’s footsteps and become a nurse.
We have been trying our hardest to remember all the happy memories of my sister. She was always there for all her brothers and sisters.’
He also spoke of the malicious assault his big sister was subjected to.
‘I think of Tina’s last living moments being attacked in such a cold and callous way. It chills me to the bone,’ he said.
Addressing Alexander directly, Judge Avik Mukherjee said, ‘I am sure that you intended to kill Christina due to the extent of the injuries that you inflicted upon her, and also the ways in which you attacked her.’
The judge added, ‘Losing Christina in such a way has been shattering for her family and friends.
Their grief is palpable.’
Robert Alexander was sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years.
While justice had been served, nothing could bring Christina back. She’d spent her life caring for other people.
For years, all the outside world could see was a husband and wife sharing a home.
What it couldn’t see was the gradual tightening of control – the violence, the fear, the arguments over money, and eventually the preparations of a woman trying to leave.
By the time the pattern could be seen in full, it was too late for Christina, yet she’d chillingly predicted her own death when speaking to her sister.
Christina’s family will always cherish the caring person she was.
‘Robert can cowardly take away my sister’s life but he can never take away our memories,’ her brother Neil vowed.
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