A bit of an understatement?

Whilst sentencing a man, the judge said this:

"Your way of dealing with the situation was dreadful and wholly disproportionate."

What did the defendant do?


A sledgehammer -wielding murderer, who went on the run before being arrested in Burnham-on-Sea, has been jailed for life.

David Lancaster was a possessive husband who battered his primary school teacher wife to death with a sledgehammer the day after she filed for divorce.

The 60-year-old, from Tewkesbury, committed the horrific crime in the middle of the night while his wife Helen of 30 years had been sleeping.

Bristol Crown Court heard the harrowing account of how Lancaster smashed the 54-year-old in the head six times, fracturing her skull, before smothering her with a pillow.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Jealous-husband-battered-wife-death-fleeing/story-28728585-detail/story.html

I would perhaps use a stronger description than "disproportianate"