A husband who admitted stabbing his charity shop worker wife to death has walked free from Court after being acquitted of her murder.

The case against tailor David Oates, 49, was dropped at Leeds Crown Court yesterday after the Crown Prosecution Service conceded that it could not disprove his assertion that he had killed her in self-defence.

Gillian Oates, 42, was found dead by police in a bedroom of the neat and tidy semi-detached home the couple shared in Sunnybank Court, Yeadon on January 30 last year. Her husband was discovered in the bathroom with stab wounds and blood on his face and hands.

Prosecutor Rodney Jameson, QC, said Mr Oates had indicated from first to last that his wife had "been disturbed" in the weeks before her death and he had always stressed that he had acted in self-defence.

"His explanation has always been that at that time she attacked him," said Mr Jameson.

"The scientific evidence has certainly indicated that he sustained a substantial number of wounds at that time.

"From the scientific and medical point of view there is simply nothing that indicates that anything that he said to the police was in any way wrong.

"There is no evidence upon which I could ask a jury to disbelieve anything the defendant has said."

Acquitting Mr Oates, the Recorder of Leeds, Norman Jones, QC, said: "The defendant has always talked to the police of acting in his own defence. That cannot be refuted by the Crown and therefore holds total defence to the defendant.

"Nothing anyone can say will bring his wife back to him or his family and I have very great sympathy with the family.

"Unfortunately tragedies such as this occur from time to time and one hopes that the family can take as much solace as is possible from what has happened in court here today."

Detective Sergeant Paul Malthouse, of Weetwood police, told an inquest into Mrs Oates's death last March that she suffered two stab wounds to the neck and stab wounds to her nose, right breast and to both eyes.

He said a small bone had been broken in her neck which had been caused by strangulation.

Police were alerted by worried relatives who had been unable to contact her.

Mr Oates was treated, under police guard, at Leeds General Infirmary and then arrested and charged with his wife's murder.

After yesterday's case Richard Firth, head of the Leeds trial unit for the CPS, said the decision to discontinue the case had only been taken after careful consideration of the evidence.

Also speaking after the case Det Sgt Malthouse said it was an "absolute tragedy" for both families.

He said that the reason for what happened remained a mystery as Mr Oates and his wife appeared to have been a respectable, traditional and middle-class couple.

"They had been married for about 15 years and it appeared to be a happy marriage. They would go out together to classical concerts," he said.

"From everybody you speak to they seemed to be happy together.

"Something, somewhere, has gone tragically wrong on that day."

Mr Oates had worked for many years in his family's tailor's shop on New Road Side, Horsforth, while his wife did voluntary work in charity shops around Yeadon.

"David was the bread-winner and Gillian looked after the home, which was very clean and tidy. They were very traditional," said Det Sgt Malthouse.

The couple had no children but were fond of animals and kept a number of pets, mainly cats.

"They were like children to them," he added.

He said the family of Gillian, originally from Castleford, had taken her death badly and her elderly parents had suffered ill health since.

Mr Oates was now believed to be living with a relative out of the immediate area.