COMPUTER boss Randle Williams is set to appear before a Bristol judge on Wednesday for what could be the last time before he stands trial for his wife's murder.

Williams, 43, is scheduled to appear at Bristol Crown Court for a pre-trial hearing aimed at mapping out the course of the trial.

The former Bath computer boss is accused of murdering his 33-year-old beauty consultant wife Natalie and dumping her body in the River Avon at Bradford on Avon.

The long-awaited trial, which is scheduled for one of the showpiece courtrooms in Bristol, will involve more than 100 witnesses and could last up to one-and-a-half months.

Williams, who denies the murder charge, insists his wife was killed by a mystery assailant while out walking their pet dog Hardy in April last year.

Wiltshire police launched a two-day missing person search when Williams raised the alarm but a teenage Scout found Mrs Williams' body floating in the River Avon.

A post-mortem found she died from asphyxiation.

The well-off couple lived in a luxury house in Bradford on Avon's Greenland Mills development, which they were due to rent out after buying a converted barn near Winchester.

Mrs Williams, who was last seen alive in a Bradford on Avon pub talking to a mystery blonde, was a beauty consultant at Jolly's department store in Bath.

Police have made extensive appeals to trace the mystery witness but she has never come forward.

The trial is expected to start on June 4.