An inquest into the death of an alleged wife-killer, who was found hanging in his prison cell, has been postponed for at least a year to allow further police inquiries into the case.

A Coroner’s hearing before a new jury into how Bradford father-of-two Kassa Osebu died will not now be heard before next summer – almost five years since his death.

Mr Osebu, 30, died in a single cell at Leeds Prison on September 28, 2007. He was found suspended from a bed sheet.

He had been in custody for three months after being charged with the murder of his pregnant wife, Maserat Tabesse, also 30, at their home in Ure Crescent, White Abbey, Bradford. She suffered fatal stab wounds to the chest and neck.

An inquest into Mr Osebu’s death began, before a jury in Leeds, in April last year. But it had to be adjourned on the second day of the hearing when a Prisons Ombudsman investigator and a former Armley jail inmate failed to attend to give evidence.

Assistant Deputy Coroner Melanie Williamson postponed the proceedings on the third day until December after further difficulties getting inmates and a former prisoner to court.

When the inquest resumed, the jury was told that the prison officer who found Mr Osebu hanging did not know there was a suggestion he had previously harmed himself, in a police risk assessment document and in Prison Escort Record documents. The inquest also heard about bullying in the prison.

And a staff nurse, who tried to revive Mr Osebu in his cell, admitted he had not told the Prison Probation Ombudsman he had interviewed him when he was first admitted to the prison.

The hearing was again adjourned, following legal arguments, for further police inquiries into the case.

It was due to resume this week, but a spokesman for the Coroner’s office in Leeds said the original inquest jury had been discharged and the case had been re-listed for June next year for a fresh hearing with a new jury because police inquiries were ongoing. It is scheduled to last for six weeks.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that police are reviewing the case into the death of Mr Osebu at the request of the coroner.”

Mr Osebu’s two young children are in foster care.