A JEALOUS father bludgeoned his wife to death with a paving hammer the day after he received a letter telling him she wanted a divorce.

Michael Luke, 45, also discovered his wife, Johanna, was having an affair minutes before he attacked her in the living room of their home, as their ten-year-old son cowered upstairs.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Luke called 999 before ringing his brother to confess what he had done, and then went outside to have a cigarette.

The couple's son, Kieron, who had earlier witnessed a confrontation between Luke and his wife's lover, was hysterical and screaming.

Paul Ashton, the victim's brother-in-law, arrived at the house, in Priory Gardens, Willington, County Durham, to find Johanna slumped on the sofa and bleeding heavily.

He had received a call five minutes earlier from the mother-of-two asking him to come over.

Aidan Marron, prosecuting, said: "By the time he got there she was, if not dead, dying.

"She had been subjected to a flurry of blows to the head with a particularly heavy hammer, which produced extensive fractures to the head."

It is alleged that Luke told Mr Ashton immediately after the killing: "I have hit her with a hammer because she is having an affair."

The landscape gardener, who claims to have no recollection of the attack, admits responsibility for his wife's death, but denies murder.

The court heard the couple met in 1987, when Johanna was aged 19. Their daughter, Kimberley, was born in March 1988, and their son in 1995.

Mr Marron said: "From the very outset, their relationship was turbulent and volatile.

"Although as with most relationships there were happy times, argument and discord was never far from the surface. Michael Luke remained, throughout the relationship, possessive and jealous."

The trial continues.