A police inspector who strangled his detective wife to death as he tried hiding debts worth over £100,000 has been jailed for life.

Darren McKie, 43, who worked for Greater Manchester Police, was told he must serve a minimum of 19 years for the killing of wife Leanne.

McKie throttled his partner in their Poynton Lake home, Cheshire, on September 29 last year before going about disposing of the body.

The inspector had tried concealing debts of over £115,000 through "subterfuge and fraud" before his wife confronted him.

Initially he pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but was convicted of murder last Friday and jailed at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday.

Jurors heard the pair, who have three children, were living a life beyond their means.

McKie forged his wife's signature and misused a police computer to obtain copies of her payslips for a loan application.

When she discovered this she accused McKie of being a liar, and was strangled to death when McKie returned home.

Putting the body in the family Mini, McKie drove to Poynton Lake where he dumped it.

He denied responsibility for her death during police interviews and when his trial started, changing his plea to admit her manslaughter nine days into the case.

Mrs McKie's mother Ellen Dodd was in tears in court as the judge described the "brutal killing".

Sentencing, Mr Justice Spencer said the family appeared to have had a "perfect marriage" but that the "spectre of serious and constant debt" was in the background.

"You strangled her to death in the family home. It was a cruel killing," he said.

"Then, abusing your knowledge with criminal investigations and abusing the public trust in you as a senior police officer, you set about disposing of your wife's body in a callous and despicable way."

Justice Spencer added: "You have robbed your children of their mother and have robbed Leanne's parents of their beloved only child."