NATIONAL Lottery winner Michael O'Leary has been jailed for four years after being convicted of killing his wife.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court took more than four-and-a-half hours to acquit 54-year-old O'Leary of murdering Accrington transport company worker Michelle O'Leary but guilty of her manslaughter on the grounds he did not intend to kill her.

O'Leary, of Rokeden, Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, whom the court heard was obsessed with the idea his wife had been unfaithful to him with huge numbers of men, denied murdering her on April 6.

O'Leary, who won £400,000 on the lottery in November 19995, admitted causing her death.

But he denied committing a crime and denied he had murdered her to prevent her getting a share of the money in a divorce.

He told the court his wife died in a struggle following an argument over whether he was the natural father of their 20-year-old student daughter Catherine, whom subsequent blood tests have shown was not his natural daughter.

Over the years the marriage had turned sour and after passing her advanced GNVQ in business studies Michelle O'Leary had found success with the Accrington-based transport company Fraser Eagle and transformed her life.

Mr Justice Penry-Davey told him: "You inflicted serious injured which resulted in her death albeit the jury have found you did not intend to kill her or cause her really serious bodily harm.

"The fact remains that by strangling her that day you caused her death. You have deprived her of her life and Catherine and Ryan of their mother.

"I accept that you are remorseful but your responsibility in my judgement is heavy."

Catherine was in tears and looked on in apparent shock and horror as O'Leary's counsel, Mr John Benson QC, suggested that the sentence should not be so long as to deprive him of hope and allow him sooner rather than later to pick up the pieces of his life.

Outside court Catherine, holding hands with her sixteen-year-old brother Ryan, said: "We are deeply, deeply disappointed with the verdict and the length of sentencing, but we have all got to try and rebuild our lives without our mother.

"We would appreciate if the family are left alone."

Kevin O'Leary, brother of the defendant, said: "It is a tragedy for the family. We are all devastated. We loved Michelle."

It is believed that the family may now sue O'Leary for half of the lottery winnings to which his wife may have been entitled in the divorce settlement.