A man who was jailed for at least 16 years after murdering his wife and driving her dead body in the boot of his car to France today failed in an Appeal Court bid for an earlier parole date.

Derek Symmons, a 65-year-old electrical engineer, was convicted at St Albans Crown Court in December 2006 of murdering his wife, 59-year-old Christine.

Last month, having failed in a challenge to his conviction, Symmons, of Lower Plantation, Rickmansworth, appealed against the 16-year period he was ordered to serve before applying for release.

But today, after taking two weeks to consider their judgment, senior Court of Appeal judge, Lady Justice Hallett, was back in court to reject Symmons' appeal.

The judge, who heard the appeal with Mr Justice Penry Davey and Mrs Justice Gloster, rejected all of the arguments put forward by Symmons' lawyers about his minimum term - or "tariff".

Last month, Edward Fitzgerald QC told the judges that, in a case where a "life means life" sentence was inappropriate, imposing a sentence likely to result in a prisoner dying behind bars was also inappropriate.

The sentencing judge had also failed to sufficiently take into account Symmons' mental history and that he is not a "normal healthy person".

And the mitigating circumstances of the killing, including his claim that his wife had taunted him about his baldness and impotence, had not been adequately reflected in the minimum term, he said.

But, rejecting the appeal, Lady Justice Hallett said: "The appellant stood to be sentenced on the basis he lost his temper with his wife and launched a sustained and savage attack upon her.

"Although the murder was in no way pre-meditated, at the time he intended to kill her and ensured he did so.

"Afterwards, he behaved in an appallingly cold-blooded and cold-hearted way, no doubt adding considerably to the distress of his own children. This is a significantly aggravating feature.

"The appellant did not have the benefit of a plea of guilty or expressions of genuine remorse, but he is a man in his early sixties who does have the benefit of a good character.

"On the question of his age, we accept that it may well be a material consideration that the effect of the minimum term could be to sentence an offender to die in prison.

"The judge may not have referred expressly to that possibility in his sentencing observations, but he did refer expressly to his age.

"The inevitable consequence of a 62-year-old man's committing a murder, for which the agreed starting point is a minimum term of 15 years' imprisonment to serve, is that he is to grow old, if not die, in prison.

"His age, therefore, cannot be determinative of the finishing point; it is but one factor to be borne in mind as part of the sentencing process."

Symmons strangled his wife after returning home from a marriage guidance counselling session on September 5, 2005, and then drove her body to France where he confessed his crime to a stunned hotel receptionist.

He will only be released after serving his 16-year tariff if he can convince the Parole Board he is no longer a danger to members of the public.