He saw to that by stabbing Meena Narayanan 32 times and slitting her throat in his Brisbane hotel room in March 2014.

Ms Narayanan, from Singapore, was a living in Australia as a student and had become estranged from Arumugam.

The pair had met via an arranged marriage website in 2013 and their families were in agreement they would marry.

But Arumugam, an Indian national living in South Africa, where he worked as an engineer, became enraged when Ms Narayanan indicated she did not want to marry him.

He believed she was cheating and travelled to Australia, obtaining a knife before the pair fought at the Mt Gravatt property where she died.

She sustained bruises and cuts on her back, arms, hands and legs as she tried to defend herself, some of the injuries sustained while she was lying on her back.

She died from wounds to her chest and abdomen.

"Your conduct on the day in question was planned and persistent," Brisbane Supreme Court judge David Boddice said.

"The frenzied attack was ferocious. Your intent in taking the life of the deceased involved brutality beyond comprehension."

Arumugam, 36, was sentenced to life in jail on Friday after pleading guilty to murder.

After killing Ms Narayanan, Arumugam stabbed himself multiple times in the abdomen and called for help.

The pair were found bloodied, with Arumugam later telling investigators they had attempted a suicide pact after "she had asked him to help her die".

But her injuries were "entirely inconsistent" with those claims, Justice Boddice said.

He had told others he would slit her throat if she was cheating and said if he "could not have (her), nobody else will", the court heard.

With a mandatory non-parole period of 20 years, Arumugam will be eligible for release in 2035, having already spent 1125 days in custody.

Australian Associated Press