The trial of a husband accused of killing his wife in a frenzied attack collapsed yesterday after he was found dead in his prison cell.

Father-of-two Russell Yeates, 49, was found dead in Bullingdon Prison, near Bicester, yesterday morning. It is believed he slit his wrists.

The carpenter was discovered by prison guards just hours before he was due at Oxford Crown Court for the fourth day of his trial.

Yeates was accused of threatening to kill his wife Debbie Smith, 47, before chasing her through the street and slitting her throat in their home in Bell Lane, Wheatley.

Amjad Malik, prosecuting, said Yeates — who denied murder — killed Ms Smith with a 20cm long kitchen knife before trying to slit his own throat on May 26 last year.

He told the jury there was a history of violence in the couple’s relationship and said Yeates had been cautioned by police for assaulting Ms Smith in December 2006.

Mr Malik said: “There is a background to the killing. There is a history of violence suffered by Debbie Smith in her relationship with this defendant. What the prosecution say is that it reveals evidence of a man who is extremely violent towards his wife.”

Yeates, formerly of Horspath, was jailed for three years in 1997 after holding his then-wife Julie and three of her work colleagues captive with a sawn-off shotgun before threatening to kill himself.

Yeates’s neighbour Anne Ledwith said she regularly overheard violent rows between Yeates and Ms Smith.

She said she saw Yeates chase his wife into the street on the afternoon she died.

She said: “He was yelling and she was crying. There was definitely rage in his face, whereas her face was just terrified.

“Most of the noise was coming from Russell. It was not words, it was more of an animal noise.

“I felt there was something horrifically wrong.”

The court also heard evidence from a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named, who said he also witnessed the chase and saw Ms Smith throwing an object he thought was a ring to the ground.

Mother-of-two Michelle Bark, a friend of Ms Smith, said she intervened when she saw Yeates trying to throttle Ms Smith in the summer of 2006.

Another friend, Caroline Elliot, said: “Debbie told me she did not know if she could carry on with the relationship.

“I said ‘You need to end the relationship, otherwise he will kill you’.”

Shirley Jones, who had known Ms Smith for about eight years, said the week before she died her friend asked her to tell Yeates to leave the house, but he refused.

She said: “He said if I did not get her out he would kill her.”

During cross-examination she agreed with Nicholas Syfret, QC, defending, that Ms Smith drank heavily in the time leading up to her death and took drugs.

Discharging the jury yesterday, Judge Anthony King said: “The circumstances of his death will undoubtedly be the centre of an inquiry.

“I’m sure the first thing you would wish me to do is to express, on your and my behalf, condolences to the family of Deborah Smith and secondly to the family of Russell Yeates.”

esimmonds@oxfordmail.co.uk