A MAN accused of murdering his former wife broke down in tears yesterday as he was forced to relive the bloodbath in his former marital home.

Brian Jones stabbed Katrina Jones to death as she prepared to hold a divorce party at the house they had shared in Marske, east Cleveland, last year.

The killing happened a month after the couple’s tenyear marriage was legally dissolved and eight months after Mrs Jones filed for divorce.

Mr Jones, a 63-year-old retired club doorman and seafood retailer, spent a second day in the witness box at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Wearing two rings on his wedding finger, the former bodybuilder regularly sobbed as he gave evidence – which lasted more than seven hours.

At one point as he was quizzed about events at the house in Church Close on November 27, he almost collapsed, crying “please stop, please stop”. After a 20- minute break for Mr Jones to compose himself yesterday afternoon, the intense crossexamination from Franz Muller continued.

Mr Jones, of Thrushwood Crescent, Marske, had earlier said his 34-year-old former wife had left him “screwed up” with a series of text messages after their initial split last February.

At times, she sent him loving messages, but he also received hurtful texts designed to humiliate him, the jury of six men and six women heard.

Mr Jones, who was staying next door to his former marital home, said he got angry and upset when he confronted his former wife about the divorce party.

He went into the house – decorated outside with banners and balloons – and saw a photograph of himself with “pin the tail on the ex” next to it. Asked by his barrister, Jamie Hill how the apparent game for party guests made him feel, Mr Jones sobbed as he replied: “I was devastated.”

He said he pleaded with Mrs Jones to take down the decorations, adding: “It was hurting me . . . she didn’t seem to care . . . she wasn’t bothered.”

The court heard that Mr Jones saw the mocking photograph of himself on a door and one close by on the wall of his former wife and her lover in Majorca.

Mr Jones said she pointed to his picture and said “that’s my past” and to the holiday snap, saying “that’s my future . . . we’re going to get married”.

During his lengthy spell in the witness box, Mr Jones repeatedly told barristers that he had no recollection of stabbing his former wife 12 times.

He said he remembered arguing, running next door to get a knife and seeing bubbles coming from her mouth and realising something was wrong.

He told the court that he dialled 999 and tried to do what he could to save the life of the petite mother-of-two, but could recall little else.

The session was halted when Mr Jones became too distressed after telling the jury: “My wife was dying in my arms. I was begging them to come.”

Mr Jones denies murder and claims he was provoked and suffering from diminished responsibility at the time of the killing.

The trial continues.