An 80-year-old man has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for killing his 78-year-old wife in a retirement village in Mount Maunganui.

When Justice Francis Cooke passed his sentence in Hamilton High Court on Thursday, he told John Alfred Salter not to give up hope, and to start thinking about his future now.

Justice Cooke accepted that John did what he thought the pair had agreed upon, with the goal of eternal togetherness and a genuine belief it was in her best interests.

He did not impose a minimum period of imprisonment and says John would be eligible for parole after one third of his sentence.

Police were called to Metlifecare’s Bayswater retirement village at 6.55pm where they found the body of Jean Salter on October 8.

John pled guilty to murdering Jean, 78, in their apartment, strangling her with a neck tie he’d hidden behind a cushion.

They’d just got back from McDonald’s and Robert Harris for breakfast and coffee when John made Jean another cup and sat with her.

He asked her to drink it before moving towards her and retrieving the tie.

She gasped, “Oh John” several times as he killed her, according to court documents previously obtained by Stuff.

He then went into his bathroom and tried to kill himself. When that failed, he called his sister in the UK and then police.

The documents say the suggestion that Jean go into full-time care “caused John to become stressed and concerned about being separated from his wife”.

According to the court summary, John claimed he’d spoken to Jean in the week leading up to the killing about a suicide pact.

Bayswater Metlifecare Retirement Village in Papamoa was the scene of the murder. Photo: DJ Mills / Stuff.

She had mild Alzhiemer’s disease and would nod in agreement, before forgetting the arrangement.

In preparation, John started taking blood thinners, the documents say.

He told police he killed Jean because he couldn’t live without her and planned to kill himself to be with her.

John’s lawyer Tony Rickard-Simms said there was nothing selfish about John’s actions.

John and Jean had been together for 60 years, and spent every day together. They met when they were 15 and 17 and married the next year as soon as she was legally able.

The couple came to New Zealand in 1975, and had been living in Metlifecare’s Bayswater retirement village for 18 years.

“Slowly but surely Jean started to lose her faculties,” says Tony.

She’d lose things, and became forgetful and had started wandering around the retirement village alone when John was sleeping.

It was when a retirement village staff member suggested the behaviour was dangerous and that Jean should be moved to a different facility that John became distressed.

Options were offered, but Tony says John found them all unbearable.

“He couldn’t see himself without her.”

Justice Cooke says John had described Jean as “the best wife who managed all his household duties up until her mental decline” but he’d also acknowledged his dependence on her.

A worker refurbishes the apartment where John Salter killed his wife, Jean Salter, at the Bayswater Metlifecare Retirement Village in Papamoa. Photo: Tony Wall / Stuff.

“You believe she did not deserve this and have openly talked about self disgust about your actions.”

But Cooke also noted there was a degree of premeditation to the killing, and Jean was vulnerable and unable to physically defend herself.

The charge of murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, however Justice Cooke concluded it would be manifestly unjust to sentence John to life imprisonment, instead imposing a finite sentence.

He decided on a starting point of eight years and gave a 25 per cent discount for a guilty plea, and a further 25 per cent discount for other factors including Salter’s age, remorse, his lack of support and vulnerability in prison.

John has no family or close friends in New Zealand, and Cooke told him to start thinking now about what his future after prison would look like.

John had already been in custody since his last court appearance in November.

Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett argued this was not a mercy killing, and had selfish elements.

She says Jean only had mild Alzheimer’s for one year before her death, was not abusive or aggressive and John was not required to provide full and constant care.

“It was well understood the full range of support that they had available to them.”

Pollett submitted that life imprisonment with a minimum period of 10 years was appropriate.

Rachel Moore/Stuff