A WORK colleague of a woman allegedly murdered in her bed by her husband told jurors she saw her with a black eye in the months before the killing.

Prosecutors claim that Fatos Xheta murdered his wife at the home they shared at Lytton Road, Oxford on June 17 this year.

It is alleged that the 46-year-old stabbed Safie Xheta, 35, multiple times in the neck in an attack motivated by 'sexual jealousy.'

He denies murder and as his trial at Oxford Crown Court continued today jurors heard from various family members of the Xheta's and from those who knew the pair.

READ AGAIN: A report from the opening of the trial on Monday.

From the witness box a work colleague at the BMW factory Dorela Rehova claimed she saw Safie months before the killing sporting a black eye.

She said: "She was very upset and emotional and she was in a bad place.

"When I saw her she was on her own drinking a coffee and totally separate from everybody.

"I asked her what happened because I noticed the black eye. She said I got a black eye from Fatos.

"I asked her why, she said he found some messages on my phone from Italy.

"She said [to him] why isn't it allowed for me to have any friends."

She went on to say that Fatos had 'smashed' his wife's phone.

Asked to describe their relationship Ms Rehova told jurors: "At the beginning I thought they were getting on really well and I liked them as a couple.

READ ALSO: Remorseless thug says 'b***ocks* as family recounts vicious street attack.

"But I came to realise that they had problems between them."

Describing their characters she said that Safie was 'very much out-going and very friendly while Fatos was inward looking.'

During cross examination it was put to Ms Rehova that she was only assisting officers with the trial to help with her application to remain in the country after a previous conviction saw the Albanian national jailed.

She denied the assertion and said: "I swear on my mother's life that [Safie] did tell me that, Fatos did hit her and Fatos did smash her phone."

Other witnesses also took to the witness box, and a number of Fatos's cousins described the relationship between Safie and her husband.

Fatos's brother Dashmir Xheta said the marriage was an 'arranged' union and he said the pair 'had a lot of respect for one another.'

READ ALSO: Man facing sexual communication with decoy children charges.

A cousin, Arjan Lazri, said of the alleged killing: "We are still in shock, they looked so happy and we still can't believe what happened.

"They were a very happy family, they were both working.

"There was absolutely nothing to suggest that there was something untoward between them."

Prosecutors maintain that Fatos killed his wife with a kitchen knife before turning the blade on himself in an apparent murder-suicide bid.

The trial continues.