Former Phones4U sales boss Chris Collier jailed for 24 years by Turkish court for killing his wife Julia.
A 40-year old British businessman murdered his glamorous Russian wife after, it has been claimed,he discovered she was transgender.
Chris Collier knocked 35-year-old Julia unconscious with a heavy object, then smothered her to death, according to reports.
It all happened at their apartment in Kuşadası on Turkey’s Aegean coast, which is popular with foreign tourists.
Collier, who used to be employed by the Phones4U cell phone
sales company in the UK. He was one of the first salesmen the founder, James Caudwell, hired and became a prominent figure in the company, which was sold for £1.46 billion in 2006 ($2.36billion €1.84billion).
Collier moved from Staffordshire, England to the Turkish coast in the late 1990s and married his wife Julia.
An internet forum for ex-pats in Turkey saw some people claim that he had ‘paid’ for his wife and reported that she ‘used to be a bloke’.
He ran an estate agency in Kuşadası while his wife was a pianist, giving private lessons and performing at hotels and bars, including the resort’s Korumar Hotel.
He was arrested the day after her death on 27 November 2010.
He was jailed on 6 August to 24 years in prison but details of the case have only just emerged. But the reports available so far do not reveal his motive for the murder.