Georgina Dowey was strangled and left in a bathroom with a bag over her head for almost a day the court heard.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Ms Dowey had suffered injuries, which included a broken nose.
The victim, who was a vulnerable individual, was in a relationship with Pickering, and had moved into his address in March 2023.
Pickering was sentenced today Monday 5 February at Swansea Crown Court following a guilty verdict last week.
The judge said what Ms Dowey had experienced was a ‘terrifying way to die’.
He said he believed Pickering had killed Ms Dowey in a jealous rage after he found messages from another man on her phone.
Ms Dowey was besotted with Pickering, who she had known since school, the judge said.
He added that in the first 36 hours after Ms Dowey’s death, Pickering “went about calmly covering [his] tracks with not a hint of anything untoward”.
“There was not the merest flicker of anything resembling emotion or sympathy or regret demonstrated by you,” he said.
“All you have demonstrated throughout this process is cold, callous, self-interest.”
Pickering, of Beaconsfield Street, pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder after Georgina’s body was discovered by police in his downstairs bathroom on Sunday, May 7, 2023.
Detective Inspector David Butt of South Wales Police said:
“This sentence represents justice being served for Georgina’s murder – at the hands of her own partner.
“Georgina was last seen alive on Friday, May 5. The murder took place either later that evening or during the early hours of the following morning.
“He spent approximately 40 hours covering his tracks while Georgina’s body lay on the floor of his downstairs toilet.
“He also got rid of key evidence by placing items in bins in the local area, including items that were found in a dog waste bin. Georgina had two mobile phones – neither of which have been found – and it is believed that Mathew Pickering disposed of them.
“My thoughts remain with Georgina’s family who are understandably devastated by what has happened.
“I would like to thank the local community and witnesses for the support they have provided to this investigation.”
In an impact statement read to the court, Miss Dowey’s daughter Chelsea said there were no words to describe the hurt Pickering had caused to the family by killing her mother in the most “horrific and undignified” of ways.
She said her mother was a witty and comical woman who was not proud of much in her life but was proud of being a mother and a grandmother. And she said while no sentence could ever bring her mother back it would at least provide some closure for the family and give her mum the justice she deserved.
[Lead image: South Wales Police]
