A British man who strangled his wife and buried her body in a suitcase within a shallow grave after she discovered he was cheating with their teenage babysitter has walked free eight years into his 67-year prison sentence.
Alexander Clack, 40, battered Nixiann Downes-Clack and strangled her when she threatened to leave him after he had an affair with the couple’s 17-year-old babysitter.
The former prison officer from London killed his wife on their fourth wedding anniversary in June 2014.
He buried her body in a small suitcase which was found in a shallow grave on the outskirts of St George’s, the capital of Caribbean island Grenada, five days later.
Clack was sentenced to 67 years and six months in prison in February 2016, but he has now walked free after his lawyer argued that the loss of a court computer with a transcript of his murder trial had made it impossible to appeal the sentence.
Alexander Clack, 40, has been released from prison early after being sentenced to 67 years’ imprisonment
Nixiann’s aunt Kim Szmyglewska, 45, told The Sun: ‘I’m horrified. How could they release someone on such a flimsy technicality when he is guilty of such evil and clearly a danger to women.
‘Now he’s got away with murder and is heading this way.’
A former friend of Clack added: This decision defies belief. Even before the murder he had been involved in domestic violence involving calls to the police.’
Aged 16, Mrs Downes-Clack joined Southwark College in Lewisham, south east London, to study travel and tourism, meeting prison officer Clack, 24, when she turned 20, on the social networking site MySpace.
Mrs Downes-Clack started regularly staying over at Clack’s flat in Croydon, South London, and soon she moved in with him.
The ex-pats had appeared to have a perfect life, after moving from Kent to Grenada in 2009.
The couple married on June 17, 2009, before moving to the upmarket southern region of Lance Aux Epine, running a successful recruitment firm together.
Nixiann Downes-Clack (pictured) was brutally battered and strangled before being buried in a suitcase
Mrs Downes-Clack’s body was found in this shallow grave five days after she disappeared
She fell pregnant in March 2011 and when little Anna (not her real name) was born in December that year, she said Clack was a doting father.
When their girl turned one, they hired a 17-year-old childminder, so Mrs Downes-Clack could go back to work.
Soon afterwards, though, she discovered that Clack had seduced the teenager, having sex in their marital bed, his murder trial heard.
Mrs Downes-Clack’s body was found five days after she had disappeared and Clack was arrested and charged with non-capital murder.
He had flown into an angry rage after collecting his wife from work, when she had threatened to leave him.
Back at the house, he’d beaten her black and blue, before strangling her in front of their two-year-old daughter.
Then he’d shoved her lifeless body into a suitcase – driving it to a hilltop overlooking Grenada‘s picturesque capital St George’s.
There, he’d buried the case in a three-foot-deep-ditch.
Clack’s lawyer Anselm Clouden said: ‘Mr Clack was overjoyed but is a typically reserved Englishman. He may have celebrated with a glass of port.
‘I understand the British High Commission assisted in arrangements to fly him home.’