Jeffrey Godfrey sentence to 12 years after killing wife on Sunshine Coast getaway.

A man who killed his wife while in the grip of meth-induced psychosis on a Sunshine Coast getaway must serve 80 per cent of his sentence, with his family satisfied justice has been served.

A man who killed his wife on a weekend getaway on the Sunshine Coast will have to serve at least 80 per cent of his sentence before parole after it was declared a serious violent offence to the relief of family.

Jeffrey James Godfrey, 53, was experiencing a drug induced psychosis, triggered by years of meth abuse, that caused paranoid and delusional beliefs regarding his recently separated wife of 27 years Vanessa Godfrey, when he strangled and stabbed her to death at a Pelican Waters resort in February 2022.

Vanessa Godfrey was on a weekend away with her estranged husband when she was killed.

Justice Glenn Martin on Thursday sentenced him to 12 years jail for her manslaughter after the charge was downgraded from murder due to diminished responsibility.

The couple’s daughter Olivia said she was relieved at the sentence.

“It was a was much better outcome than what was expected,” she said outside Brisbane’s Supreme Court.

“It’s a massive weight off all of our shoulders knowing that to a degree justice is served in this instance.”

She said her father’s actions were completely unexpected.

“I come from a totally normal family, normal childhood, great parents (who) provided everything and it just solely came down to poor choices as they got older which led to such horrific actions,” she said.

Olivia remembered her mum as caring, loving, and always “there for all of us”.

“She was absolutely beautiful, friendly and just loved everyone,” she said.

The pair separated about six months before Vanessa’s death but remained on good terms.

The couple headed to a Pelican Waters resort in February 2022 for a three-night stay for a friend’s birthday where witnesses observed them being affectionate.

The court heard that during the trip Godfrey believed his driver’s licence and Medicare card were missing from his wallet and that Vanessa had stolen them, which he questioned her about.

Jeffrey James Godfrey has been sentenced to 12 years in jail, with at least 80 per cent of the time to be served before the possibility of parole. Picture: Social media.

On the morning she was killed Vanessa asked Godfrey to rub some lotion on her sore neck and sat between his legs as he did so.

Godfrey asked her if his whole life had been a lie – an apparent reference to Vanessa’s actions with other people – before he began strangling her until she stopped breathing.

Sometime later he thought he saw her chest rise and believing she was still breathing he made vertical cuts down her forearms with a knife before superficially cutting his own wrists.

Concerned hotel staff entered the room in the afternoon and found Godfrey asleep and Vanessa’s body on the bed surrounded by blood.

He was arrested at the unit and told police they’d had an argument about his missing cards.

Vanessa and Jeffrey’s daughter Olivia speaks to the media outside the Supreme Court in Brisbane. Picture: NewsWire

It was later determined that Godfrey, who pleaded guilty last week, had been suffering a drug induced psychosis arising from sustained abuse of methamphetamine that he had been using since he was 40.

Godfrey’s psychotic illness developed in late 2021 and he was to be sentenced on the basis he intended to end Vanessa’s life but suffered an abnormality of mind which substantially impaired his ability to know he ought not to kill her.

One doctor said meth use “exaggerates anger and the sense of outrage over perceived transgressions” and could lead to “impulsive violence” the court heard.

However Justice Martin said Godrey’s illness was not organic but brought on by his own behaviour through the long term and heavy consumption of drugs.

“There is no suggestion that your condition came about for any other reason than your own actions in your mammoth addiction to this awful drug (meth),” he said.

Justice Martin said Vanessa had put herself in a vulnerable position for the neck massage and Godfrey took advantage of that to kill the 46-year-old.

“You were determined that she die,” he said.

“Your wife trusted you on that morning and you betrayed that trust in the ultimate way, by killing her.

“You were intent on her death. You strangled her, then to ensure that she died, you cut her wrists. In so doing, your children have been deprived of their mother and your actions have disqualified you from their lives.”

He declared Godrey’s 1081 days of presentence custody as time already served.

Originally published as Jeffrey Godfrey sentence to 12 years after killing wife on Sunshine Coast getaway.