A man accused of murdering his wife in their Radcliffe home has told a jury that he still loves her.

James Bland has admitted killing 62-year-old Carole Bland by stabbing her, but denies her murder.

After telling a jury at Liverpool Crown Court about their 44-year relationship and the affair she was having with a rock and roll dance partner, Bland said:"I loved Carole, that was it. I still love her."

He also told the court: "Carole really did bully me. I was frightened of her."

The 62-year-old retired HGV driver, of Bury Road, was found with self-inflicted knife injuries to his throat and wrists when police officers arrived at the couple's home on August 1 last year after the alarm was raised by her worried lover. Carole, aged 62, was lying dead on the floor of their lounge

Bland said he had stabbed himself to the stomach and wrists the night he killed his wife shortly after she returned from a night out with her lover Ray Sandiford but admitted it was in the morning when police arrived that he cut his throat.

He denied that it was because of her infidelity that he had killed her and said he was reconciled to her new relationship.

"I just wanted my half share of the house. I wanted to get away from everything."

Under cross-examination Mr Unsworth reminded him he told police at the scene: "She's a cheating ******* and she's rubbed my face in it."

He said that she told him she hated him.

"I started hearing voices saying 'shut her up, shut her up' and I felt like I was being pushed into it. I stabbed her," said Bland.

Earlier. he told how their 44-year marriage had become unhappy and said that she was a shopaholic, always spending money on items including clothing and 200 pairs of unworn shoes in their loft.

He told how she would scream at him and nag him.

Bland said that she also stopped him seeing his mum and his sister.

He wept in the dock as he recalled how he accidentally set fire to his younger sister Sharon when she was three years old, leading to her needing specialist treatment and skin grafts.

After Carole found out about this during an argument one day, he said she taunted him, saying: "Why don't you set fire to yourself, pour turps on yourself like you did to Sharon."

Bland said: "That used to come out regularly after that. I went to see my doctor and went to see a psychiatrist for eight weeks but it didn't help."

He said that she also told him that his mother, who has since died, told her she had never forgiven him.

"I wanted to kill myself sometimes," he told the jury.

The case continues.