A POLICE officer who killed his wife by stabbing her 96 times has refused to resign from the force.

Cleveland Chief Constable Sean Price told The Northern Echo last night that the future of Ivor Jones will now be decided at a disciplinary hearing on July 18.

He sent his sympathies to the family of Maria Jones, 36, who was killed at her Ingleby Barwick home in Stockton in December last year.

"I know people will find it difficult, but it's the process because he is a constable.

"The police regulations say that when somebody has committed a criminal offence, clearly what happens in most cases is the person just resigns.

"If they don't resign, however, the disciplinary process says there has to be a hearing and it's the hearing that then makes a decision."

Maria's father, Ron Philips, 61, was furious Jones had not quit his job.

He said: "By not resigning, it is almost as though he is still challenging the fact that he has done anything wrong."

Jones, 41, was jailed for eight years last month for killing Maria as their three children slept.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and said he snapped after his wife taunted him about an affair she had had with a younger man.

Jones' salary was stopped on conviction, but he is still entitled to receive his pension once free from prison.

Chairman of Cleveland Police Authority Councillor Dave McLuckie said he was going to lobby the Government to change the law to enable the innocent victims of crime to benefit from pension rights instead.