A multi-millionaire Abergavenny property developer jailed for life for strangling his girlfriend is appealing against his 25-year jail term.

Peter David Morgan, 55, was convicted last December of murdering Georgina Symonds by throttling the young mother with a length of twine and later dumping her body on a farm he owned.

Morgan, worth around £20m, was convicted at Newport Crown Court and ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years before he could be considered for release.

His case was heard at London’s Appeal Court on Tuesday this week, as Edward Fitzgerald QC launched a challenge to the “excessive” sentence. ??

The case was adjourned by three sitting judges and a further hearing date was not set. ??

Cold blooded and calculated

Businessman Peter Morgan, 54, was found guilty of murder by a jury at Newport Crown Court following a three-week trial during which prosecutor William Hughes QC described the killing of Georgina Symonds as "a cold-blooded and calculated murder”.

Morgan, who lived at Llanellen admitted strangling his former lover, but denied murder on grounds of diminished responsibility and loss of self-control.

After almost 17 hours of deliberation the jury returned a unanimous verdict guilty verdict.

Sentencing Morgan Mr Justice Neil Garnham said that in his opinion the murder had been carefully planned and calmly executed.

“You killed her out of cold anger at what you discovered she had done and fear of what she might do in the future,” he said.

Mr Justice Garnham said that the jury had rejected the defences of diminished responsibility and loss of self-control, adding that in his judgement they were right to do so.

He said he had read and re-read the psychiatric reports prepared and found the evidence of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen ‘compelling’ and as such accepted that Morgan had Asperger’s Syndrome which lowered his degree of culpability ‘to a modest extent’, adding that Morgan had no history of violence.

“In my judgement, you have only a mild form of that condition. You were able to form a rational judgement and you were capable of exercising self-control,” he said.

Mr Justice Garnham noted that Morgan had no history of violence. He had previously told the court he would treat Morgan as a man of good character.

After the verdict was delivered Georgina’s mother Deborah Symonds said her family respected the decision of the jury but added that whatever sentence was handed to Peter Morgan could never compensate for the loss of a daughter and mother.