A JEALOUS lover who threw petrol over his girlfriend and set her alight has been jailed for 21-and-a-half years.

Aiah Tondoneh, 44, decided to kill 50-year-old Donna Drepaul after she returned to her home in Clifton Court, Biggerstaff Street, Finsbury Park, after a meeting with another man in July last year.

The Old Bailey heard Tondoneh, a mental health nurse, was married but had been seeing Ms Drepaul for four years.

By the time of her death, she was trying to end the relationship because of his jealousy and had been seeing another man for the previous two years.

Phillip Bennetts QC, prosecuting, said: “He was jealous, possessive and controlling of her.”

He added: “Their relationship was complicated by the fact he did not want to leave his wife for her.”

Ms Drepaul had been out for a drink with the other man on July 1 last year and then went to a hotel with him until around 3.30am

Tondoneh made 48 phone calls to her during the night without success and at 3am was caught on CCTV walking to the local garage.

He bought a petrol container, cigarettes and petrol and then returned to the victim’s flat in Finsbury Park where he set her alight when she came home.

The police officer called to the scene described her as almost zombie-like as she moved towards them with her arms out groaning ‘’help me, help me’.

Ms Drepaul died two days later from organ failure.

Sentencing Tondoneh, of Shoot Up Hill, Kilburn, today (Monday), Mr Justice Nicol said: “You poured petrol over her head and upper body and then lit it.

“The sentence for murder is a mandatory one of a life sentence. I have in mind the horrific nature of her injuries and the intense pain and suffering that she must have endured.”