A MOTHER was stabbed to death by her former husband as she prepared to hold a divorce party in their marital home, a court heard yesterday.

Brian Jones, 63, is said to have begged Katrina Jones, 34, not to go ahead with the celebration a month after their divorce was finalised.

A jury heard that Mr Jones snapped when he saw the house in Marske, east Cleveland, decorated with banners, balloons and streamers.

There was also a photograph of the former bouncer and seafood seller on the back of a door with “pin the tail on the ex” written next to it.

Mrs Jones was stabbed nine times in the chest and three times in the arm with a large kitchen knife on November 27, last year.

Her attacker dialled 999 and said: “I’ve stabbed my wife, please come quickly... will you please come and save her?”

Later, he pleaded with the emergency services call handler: “Please help me. I don’t want her to die, I love her to bits.”

Mr Jones, of Thrushwood Crescent, Marske, denies murder and is on trial at Teesside Crown Court.

He said he was severely provoked and was affected by diminished responsibility – an abnormality of mind – at the time.

After his arrest, Mr Jones said he accepted causing the injuries, but that he had suffered “a sudden and temporary loss of self-control”.

He said: “I became aware Katrina was having a divorce party. I begged her not to because it would upset me so much. She just laughed at me.

“If it had not been for what Katrina had done and said, I do not believe I would have caused these injuries.”

The banners outside the house, in Church Close, said “The Party’s Here” and “Congratulations”.

Franz Muller QC, prosecuting, said a poster was put on a wall inside, reading: “Katrina’s Divorce Party. Free at last.”

Mr Jones was staying next door with neighbour Brian Fowle, despite renting a flat in another street. Mr Fowle told police that Mr Jones drank beer and whisky before the killing, and that his mood became blacker.

Mr Jones said he was depressed because of the divorce and as a result of being assaulted a decade before.

He said his ex-wife sent “extremely nasty and hurtful”

texts messages, including one in which she said she wished he would die.

Mrs Jones started divorce proceedings after her husband learnt of her affair with friend Shaun Kelly in February last year.

Mr Jones is said to have wanted to patch up their tenyear marriage.

The trial continues.