A father brutally stabbed his wife to death using three different knives, as their nine-year-old son intervened in a bid to save her life.
Steven Cleary, 51, was jailed for life for murdering Anne Marie, in gruesome assault at her home, where she lived with their two children.
A court heard how the pair had argued in the kitchen of Mrs Cleary's house in Merseyside after her estranged husband had come around to carry out DIY work.
He stabbed his wife inside the house before being interrupted by their son who arrived with a friend.
The boy knocked on the front door of the neat semi-detached house in Wallasey as the fracas ensued inside.
But the boy pleaded with his father and Cleary opened the door, attempting to send away his son away and telling him to return later.
But Anne Marie charged past her husband and out of the property in Oarside Drive before he could close the door,
She collapsed face down into the front garden where Cleary knifed her one final time in the back.
Cleary, of Shakespeare Road, Wallasey had been married to his victim for 25 years, separating only six weeks before the attack on 13th August last year.
Since his arrest, on the day of the murder, private hire taxi driver Cleary had denied the attack, changing his plea to guilty on the day he was due to stand trial.
Grey-heard Cleary sat impassively in the dock throughout a ninety-minute hearing at Liverpool Crown Court as relatives of the dead woman sobbed in the public gallery.
Graham Reeds, QC, prosecuting, described a harrowing account of how the son had tried to intervene during the attack.
He said: "He knew something was wrong, then the next thing he saw was Anne Marie staggering out of the door and collapse in the path.
"He tried to get in between the pair shouting 'stop it dad, stop hurting mummy'."
According to defence counsel Richard Pratt, QC, Cleary had a mental blackout during the attack.
He said: "It was a moment of madness.
"As he walked away it must be seen that his brain shut down. He was a man in a moment of madness hell bent on causing serious harm."
The court heard how Cleary suffered from depression following financial difficulties which left him unable to provide for his wife and their son and daughter, aged 12.
It was also established that Cleary had developed a drug habit which he could not afford to support.
Sentencing, Judge Clement Goldstone QC called the stabbing a "determined attack".
He said: "You stabbed your wife to death in a determined attack, at the time you and she had been married for 25 years but were separated.
"She was looking after your children.
"It is unclear what caused the separation, it could have been financial difficulties or the drug habit which you could not afford, or your behaviour towards her.
"Your wife and mother of your children bled to death in little more than an hour.
"You have taken away from your children not only a mother but also the reality of a father who had much to offer them."
He jailed Cleary for life with a judge's recommendation that he should serve a minimum of 15 years before being considered for release.
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