A man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend in a frenzied knife attack has declined to give evidence.

Keith Prest’s QC told the jury at the end of the prosecution case on Tuesday that he would not be going into the witness box to put his case.

Maidstone Crown Court has heard that "controlling and obsessive" Prest attacked prison teacher Louise Evans after refusing to accept the relationship was over.

Prest, 49, is alleged to have lay in wait in the car park of East Sutton Park open prison, Maidstone, on September 12 last year and stabbed Miss Evans 43 times.

Alan Kent, prosecuting, said all of the 48-year-old victim’s major organs - heart, lung on the left side, liver, spleen and kidneys - were penetrated.

The mother-of-two’s body lay undiscovered for an hour before being found by another worker at the women’s prison.

Mr Kent told Maidstone Crown Court that three times married Miss Evans, from Hothfield, near Ashford, met Prest in the autumn of 2005 through text dating.

They moved in together within two weeks, but the relationship was soon beset by violence.

"He sought to control her, he sought to dominate her," the prosecutor told the jury of nine men and three women. "When he couldn’t get his own way, or if she did something he disapproved of, he would assault her."

At the time of the attack, he was on bail accused of assaulting her.

Prest, of no fixed address, denies murder, claiming her was not the attacker. The jury is expected to go out at the end of the week.