Former Fiji resident Rohit Deepak Singh who was found guilty of murdering Arishma Chand has been sentenced to life in prison.

Chand was found brutally stabbed to death at her South Auckland home in 2017 by her parents.

Justice Grant Powell said Singh should at least spend 19 years behind bars, Stuff.Co has reported.

Singh and Chand had become involved in a sexual relationship after she moved in with him after her marriage broke down at the start of 2016.

Singh was so obsessed with Chand that he got a tattoo of her face on his chest.

The late Arishma Chand

In court Arishma’s mother had testified that Singh would message her daughter to tell her that he was talking to a picture of her on his wall.

New Zealand media reported that Singh stabbed her nearly 20 times while she was in her bedroom and in less than 16 minutes she was dead, Crown prosecutor Claire Robertson told the court.

During the trial, Singh told the court he did not kill Chand, and instead found her wounded and semi-conscious in her house.

At a post-mortem, large amounts of Singh’s DNA was found under her fingernails.

However, the jury and Justice Powell rejected that explanation.

No sentence discounts were given to Singh as he had shown no remorse, Justice Powell said.