A CONVICTED wife killer has won £250,000 on the National Lottery.

Michael Edgar, of Fronks Road, Dovercourt, was convicted of manslaughter in 1986 after he stabbed his wife Deborah through the heart with a filleting knife after she taunted him.

The 27-year-old was killed in front of a babysitter at their home in Dovercourt’s Willow Way.

Mr Edgar, 30 at the time, denied murder, but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

More than 20 years on and remarried, Mr Edgar said he would not discuss the events that saw him jailed for three years for the sake of his family.

The 53-year-old learnt of his windfall 24 hours after last Wednesday’s Thunderball draw after forgetting to check the numbers.

The father-of-four said: “I am over the moon. £250,000 is not a fortune, but it is nice.”

“When you work on a building site five-days-a-week, you get paid on a Friday, and you only have the weekend when you go to the pub.

“It is not enough to call it a day and I have got four kids.”

Mr Edgar, who works for Anderson Construction, Chelmsford, is unsure what he will splash his cash on, except taking his children and grandchildren on holiday.

Mr Edgar’s six numbers – 9, 13, 15, 24, 34 and the Thunderball 13 – came up from a ticket he bought from his local Fiveways store.

He has played the Lotto on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays for years.

He added: “Everybody around here knows me, and I was born and bred here, so there was no point me keeping it quiet.”

He was described at the time of his wife’s death by a friend as a hard worker who had “not had much luck”.