A minister worked himself up into a "sexual frenzy" after killing his wife, calling gay chatlines and two mistresses in a hunt for someone to satisfy his lust, a court was told.

David Chenery-Wickens, 52, spent two days laying a false trail for police to cover up for his crime, then invited a man back to their marital home for sex knowing nobody would catch him, it was claimed.

Just minutes after leaving a tearful message on wife Diane's voicemail begging her to come home, he called his main girlfriend, Kerry Lippett, two other mistresses and a gay chatline.

He also sent a flurry of texts in the days after Diane's disappearance to a man who had invited him for sex parties in Ashdown Forest, the jury was told.

Cross-examining the defendant, Philip Katz QC told him: "You felt free to do this because you knew perfectly well Diane wasn't going to be coming home because she was dead and you were in a virtual sexual frenzy that night.

"You were virtually out of control."

Chenery-Wickens said: "No I was not."

Mr Katz: "That day and that night, what you did from the beginning of the day to the end of the day was you were covering up what you had done by laying this false trail.

Once that was all over and done with for the night you were at home in a high state of sexual charge."

Chenery-Wickens, a spiritualist minister, sat in the press bench sporting a swollen black eye yesterday after a dramatic collapse in the witness box on Monday which caused the case to be adjourned for two days.

He is accused of murdering Diane, 48, a successful BBC make-up artist, on January 22 last year when she confronted him with evidence of his affairs and chat-line use.

Police claim he then invented an elaborate lie about Diane going missing in London to escape debts and their failed marriage.

Mr Katz said: "You put on a perfect performance. You lied through your teeth about Diane having gone to London.

"You covered what you had done which was killed your wife."

Chenery-Wickens: "I didn't kill my wife."

Mr Katz then played the jury one of dozens of long, pleading messages left by Chenery-Wickens on his wife's voicemail after he reported her missing, in which he said: "We have so much to live for. Please come home."

Mr Katz said: "This was quite a deliberate piece of deception to create a completely false picture."

Chenery-Wickens: "How dare you!"

Mr Katz: "You spent a whole day traipsing around London to create a false trail then left this message to complete the deception."

Chenery-Wickens: "You are so wrong, Mr Katz."

Mr Katz: "Then you called Kerry Lippett, your girlfriend. You texted two other mistresses. This is all about you and your sex life isn't it?"

Chenery-Wickens: "It isn't about me and my sex life."

He asked why he then invited a stranger he had met on the chatline, Adam Suddek, to his home in the early hours of the night, greeting him in a white towelling robe.

Chenery-Wickens said wanted the company and said he had never had sex with a man.

Chenery-Wickens denies murder.

The trial at Lewes Crown Court continues.