Online gambling exec sentenced to 14 years

The trial in London of online gambling exec  Mark Campbell ended this week with the sentencing of the 53-year-old entrepreneur to 14 years imprisonment.
The court at the Old Bailey earlier heard evidence that Campbell stabbed his wife, Olga Pleguezuelos, to death as she slept in their bedroom, knifing her five times around the head, face and neck after being told that she was leaving him and had met another man.
Pleguezuelos, who was 18 years younger than her husband, had signed for a new job in Las Vegas to be with her lover. On her return to Britain she was sent a text message by her new man and within an hour she was dead in the Campbell’s apartment on the edge of the Harrow school grounds.
Campbell, a former millionaire who had allegedly run up massive debts, claimed he was provoked and suffered a “sudden and temporary loss of self control”.
But Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “There was nothing sudden and temporary about it. In the end he simply refused to take the rejection and it all boiled down to a sadly depressing and familiar theme – if I can’t have you nobody can.”
Media reports on the jury trial last year revealed that after the attack, Campbell cut his own neck and wrists without doing himself any real harm before calling emergency services.
Imposing a life sentence, Judge Anthony Morris said Campbell had been convicted on “extremely strong evidence.”
Twice-married Campbell and 35-year-old Pleguezuelos wed in 2008, but his debts subsequently imposed serious strains on the marriage.
He had founded the online gaming company Gem Lifestyle and made a fortune from floating several dotcom companies, including a firm called Jazztel worth an estimated GBP 3 million.
The husband and wife team had most recently worked together on the Gran Scala multi-million pound land casino building project in Spain, where Campbell was the chief information officer. The scheme later ran into difficulties, with reports of failed deadlines for the start of construction.
Pleguezuelos, on whom Campbell was said to be emotionally dependent, was originally from Spain and spoke four languages, travelling the world on business projects. After a separation in April 2008 the couple tried to retrieve their marriage, but Pleguezuelos was promoted to a high powered position in Aristocrat Technologies, which saw her working in Las Vegas.
The court heard that seven days before she was killed she called Campbell from Las Vegas to tell him she could not continue with their marriage. She returned to Britain just two days before the murder.

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