A visual artist who worked on blockbuster films has been sentenced to at least 26 years in prison for stabbing his parents to death.
Sergey Koudryavtsev became furious at his parents Tatiana and Vladimir for opening the window and letting his pet mastiff Enzo get cold.
The 48-year-old, who worked on the final two Lord of Rings films after completing a maths degree, flew into a rage at his mum and dad, stabbing them in their West Kensington home.
He surrendered himself to police a few days after the May 20, 2018 attack, giving his parent's address.
Police stormed the property and were confronted with a bloody scene.
His mother, a 68-year-old university lecturer, was found in the bathtub, while her 69-year-old maths and physics professor husband lay in the bedroom.
Koudryavtsev, a Russian national who gained New Zealand citizenship while working for Peter Jackson's Wellington-based studio Weta Digital, represented himself in court on October 3.
He pleaded guilty and turned down the chance to argue possible defences, such as loss of control.
“I believe I was in control when I did it”, he told Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the London Evening Standard reported.
“I was trying to turn off the rage.
“If you asked me the day before would I do it, I would say definitely not. But on the day I did it, I was fully conscious that was exactly what I was doing.”
The court heard he had emigrated to New Zealand in 2002 and worked on visual effects for the Lord of the Rings films before moving back to East Horsley, Surrey with his wife.
While living in New Zealand, the defendant got a two dogs called Boris and Nikita and when the former became ill and had to be put down, he got a mastiff puppy Enzo.
When Nikita died, the defendant became "scary" to live with and blamed his wife for the death of his pet, the court heard.
He moved with Enzo back into his parent's home but became "frustrated and angry" with his parents for leaving the window open while the dog had a tooth infection.
The day before the killings, Mrs Koudriavtseva told a friend that her son had become abusive after two years living with her and obsessed with his dog to the point where she could not open a window in case it got a cold.
The next morning, she called her friend at the pharmacy and said: "I'm scared to go home. I'm terrified what he can do."
Prosecutor Paul Jarvis said he "clearly valued" the mastiff on a par with his parents, and first thought about killing them because of their relationship to Enzo four months before he did.
After he fatally knifed his parents Koudryavtsev left with the hound.
Upon his arrest in Chiddingford, Surrey on May 23, police seized two blades from the flat, a hunting and combat knife.
In a police interview, the defendant told how he loved Enzo more than his wife and had a strained relationship with his parents, who did not appreciate that dogs were "equal to humans".
He told how he had practised martial arts with knives for the past 17 years.
Koudryavtsev said he had taken his hunting knife and grabbed his mother by the head and stabbed her in the neck repeatedly before walking into the bedroom and stabbing his father twice.
Afterwards he said he panicked about Enzo's future and set about finding him a good home, which he refused to reveal to police.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC said: "A friend said the two of them were very much in love and very proud of you and your achievements."
The defendant made no reaction as he was led from the dock.
A psychological report compiled by Dr Ian Cumming found Koudryavtsev suffered from "anger and rage linked to a personality structure where he has put his needs above his parents'."
He said the killings resulted from "pre-morbid personality traits and the long standing frustration with his parents."
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