Builder Calogero Ricotta has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 34 years at Chelmsford Crown Court for the murders of his wife, 54-year-old wife Maria Nugara, referred to in charges as Maria Ricotta, who was taking steps to divorce him, and his stepson, 29-year-old Giuseppe Morreale, who had tried to protect her.
Photo credit should read: Essex Police/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption.
The pair were killed at the family home in the village of Ugley in Essex, near Bishop's Stortford, on May 28 last year.
Calogero Ricotta, 64, told his wife Maria Nugara that ‘dead or alive, you will never leave this marriage’, before stabbing his stepson when he tried to intervene.
Ricotta’s ‘vanity, pride and ego meant (he) would not agree to a divorce’ and instead he ‘tried to intimidate Maria into staying in a loveless marriage’, the judge added.
