Founding Phones4U salesman dies in Turkish jail where he was serving sentence for murdering his wife

A British businessman jailed for the murder of his transgender Russian bride has died in a Turkish prison hell hole.

Chris Collier was serving a 24-year prison term for the callous killing of his ‘mail-order’ wife back in November 2010.

The 49 year-old bludgeon then smothered his glamorous bride Julia at their home in the resort of Kusadasi on the Aegean coast.

Two years later the former phone salesman from Cheddleton, Staffordshire, who had boasted how he ‘bought’ her off the internet killed Julia, 35, in a rage at their apartment.

A Turkish judge ordered that Collier should spend at least two decades behind bars after he was found guilty following a trial.

An inquest has been opened in the UK after Collier died seven years into his jail term on October 5 after being struck down with pneumonia.

Assistant North Staffordshire coroner Sarah Murphy said: ‘The medical cause of death was aspiration pneumonia, bacterial infection related to sepsis.

‘He had been jailed in Turkey and was being transferred into a hospital.’

Collier, who was a key figure in the early days of John Caudwell’s Phones4U empire, emigrated to the popular Turkish resort in the late 1990s.

After his wife’s murder, detectives probed the couple’s relationship amid claims Collier paid for his bride on the internet and she had undergone a sex change.

Postings in an internet forum used by expat Brits claimed to be Collier, said: ‘I paid for my wife and then moved to Kusadasi in my rented apartment.’ He added that Julia ‘used to be a bloke’.

It is thought Collier ran an estate agency in Kusadasi while Mrs Collier was a pianist, giving private lessons as well as performing at hotels and bars, including the resort’s Korumar Hotel.

After the killing a horrified woman pal of the couple: ‘Julia was just the nicest girl you could ever meet.’

News of Collier’s death has stunned the community in Cheddleton where he was a well-known and popular character.

Mike Worthington, who knew Collier through work, said: ‘It’s extremely sad, he was a very nice fun-loving person. I knew him a long time.

‘I had been out for a few meals with him in Leek and sadly he made the mistake of going to Turkey. I feel very saddened.

‘I’m sorry that I didn’t take the chance of going to visit him. I wanted to see him but it’s hard enough going to an English jail, let alone a Turkish one.

After his wife’s murder, detectives probed the couple’s relationship amid claims Collier paid for his bride on the internet and she had undergone a sex change (Julia Collier pictured)

‘I don’t know the full circumstances of how he was found guilty of killing his wife. But the man I knew wasn’t like that all. He didn’t have a care in the world and was lovely.

‘He was an entrepreneur and did very well for himself but things obviously went very wrong for him.

‘I would have liked to have seen him serve his sentence in an English prison really, because you hear all sorts of stories about these foreign prisons.

‘Forty-nine is no age. It’s a tragic end to his life, firstly to be jailed in Turkey and then to die there.’

At the time Collier was jailed one pal said: ‘I don’t think he is a strong enough character to serve that amount of time in a prison over there.’

Collier was one of the first salesmen employed by tycoon Caudwell when he was building his mobile phone business, which he sold for a staggering £1.46 billion in September 2006.

Speaking at the time of Collier’s arrest the day after Julia’s death on November 27, 2010, Mr Caudwell said: ‘Chris was one of my first salesman when I was starting out, so I remember him well. He was a good salesman and became a sales manager.

‘It is shocking to hear he has been arrested for murder. It’s shocking to hear about any murder.’