A FATHER of five had his throat cut and was left to die after being confronted by his wife’s new lover, a murder trial heard.

Mark Webb, 40, was attacked by Brian Cox in Acomb, York, after exchanging angry text messages with his estranged wife, Cox’s lover, Susan Webb, Leeds Crown Court was told today.

Cox, 29, slashed Mr Webb with a Stanley knife, leaving a wound 19 cm (eight inches) long, then fled while Mrs Webb tried to destroy the evidence, said Richard Mansell, QC, prosecuting.

Mr Webb made it from Stuart Road, where the attack happened, to the garden of his marital home in nearby Middleton Road, said Mr Mansell.

The prosecutor said the attack came within an hour of Mrs Webb sending a text to her husband, reading: "Why don't you just do us all a favour and go die?"

Cox and Mr Webb came face to face when the latter tried to enter the home of his wife's friend Kerry Ann Munton in Stuart Road. He had been drinking when he went to the house, demanding to see his children.

Mr Mansell said: “Cox stopped him and in the ensuing struggle, he used the knife quite deliberately to inflict a very deep wound to the neck which severed his jugular vein.”

Cox, who had told a family support worker that he lived at Bede Avenue in Clifton, denies the murder of Mr Webb, who had been living in Cornlands Road.

Susan Webb, 30, of Middleton Drive in Acomb, denies three charges of perverting justice and Coates, 49, of Chapel Terrace, Acomb, denies one charge of perverting justice.

The trial continues.

See The Press on Wednesday for more on the opening day of the trial...