TO neighbours and the wider community in a middle-class area of Teesside, there appeared to be very little wrong in the lives of a policeman and his attractive hairdresser wife.

Ivor and Maria Jones lived in comfortable surroundings with their three sons in a £250,000 detached house in Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton.

They would regularly be seen by neighbours taking the boys to school or going to church, and gave the outward impression that theirs was a happy family.

Jones, a devout Catholic, according to neighbours, was said to be well-respected in a job he had been doing with Cleveland Constabulary for more than 20 years.

His second wife was much-loved by her workmates and bosses at the hair salon in nearby Yarm, who described her as "lovely, bubbly and chatty". Colleagues said she always turned up at work in a bright mood.

Both appeared to mask what was a relationship straining at breaking point after a series of personal tragedies suffered by the increasingly depressive Jones.

Maria, 36, supported her 40-year-old husband through the death of his mother, father and his brother, which happened within months of each other. He began treatment for depression last September.

The difficulties, allied to a court case they both faced but which collapsed after allegations of child cruelty were found to be malicious, put further pressure on their marriage.

Maria went to stay with her parents in a village outside Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and met a 21-year-old man, with whom she started an affair that would cost her her life.

After Jones learned of the relationship, Maria taunted him about his sexual prowess and demanded an open marriage in which she could have other partners.

Jones snapped and repeatedly stabbed his wife in the bedroom of their home on a December morning.

The couple's neighbours and friends reacted to the killing with horror and shock.

Lisa Williamson, 31, an auxiliary nurse who lived nearby, said: "They seemed like the model family. They were Catholics and would go to Mass at the local school.

"Maria was a very good looking woman. She was tall and slim with long dark hair, and was always well turned-out."

Another neighbour said: "They had three lovely boys who we always saw playing in the street. We never had any problems with them and you never heard a raised voice."

Angela Stott, a partner at the Hairtek salon, in Yarm, added: "Maria was such a lovely, bubbly, chatty person and she never came into work in a bad mood. She would go to the ends of the Earth for you."

Roy and Diane Lewis, who are partners in the salon but live in New Zealand, said: "Maria was such a loveable, caring, loyal and extremely popular member of staff. Her death has had a massive impact on our close-knit team."

Detective Superintendent Brian Dunn, who led the investigation, said at the time of the killing: "A lot of people in the police service knew him and are extremely shocked."

A former colleague, who worked with Jones when he was a beat officer in Hartlepool, said: "I always found him to be a bit strange and we never really got on. We had a few run-ins in the time we worked in Hartlepool. When I heard about the killing I was shocked, but it didn't surprise me."

In 1991, Jones was left in a pool of blood with his jaw shattered in three places after being beaten senseless in an attack after a row in a pub.

The man accused of assaulting him said Jones, who was off-duty, had provoked him, pushing him in the chest and threatening to slash him with a broken cider bottle.

A witness said in court that Jones was repeatedly punched in the face and his head was smashed against a gatepost.

In the months leading up to Maria's killing, Jones posted a message on the Friends Reunited website to former classmates at Northfield Secondary School, Billingham, which painted a picture of personal bliss.

It said he was previously married to a former schoolmate and was still good friends with her, and added: "Now married to Maria from Burton-on-Trent with a tribe of kids that can compete with the Addams Family!"

The facade finally fell when the strain of their relationship and Maria's infidelity became too much for Jones to bear.