Chef kept wife’s body in freezer for 3 years, court told

A CHEF killed his wife with a cast iron pan and kept her body in a freezer for three years, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Peter Wallner moved wife Melanie’s frozen body from the freezer in the garden shed to a wheelie bin when he moved out of their house last year.

But dustmen refused to take the plastic bin because it was too heavy, and the landlord saw her ankle when he opened the bin, the jury heard.

Wallner, who had a succession of girlfriends after his wife’s death, moved to Malta with his new love Lilia Fenech but was arrested on his return. He told police his wife had attacked him and he hit her head with a griddle pan.

But Bobbie Cheema, prosecuting, said Ms Wallner, 30, was found to have been wearing an eye mask – indicating she could have been asleep when attacked.

Wallner told police there had been a great deal of blood on their mattress.

The prosecution said Wallner slept with wedding planner Emma Harrison, on the mattress, the following night in August 2006, while Ms Wallner’s body lay in the house. “He apparently had no qualms about sleeping with Emma in the same bed where his wife had died not 24 hours earlier,” said Cheema.

He went on to spin a web of lies, sending texts and using Ms Wallner’s credit card, before claiming a week later that she died suddenly of a brain aneurysm, the court heard.

He held a memorial service for her and put ashes from a barbecue into an urn, claiming she had been cremated, said Cheema.

She added: “He killed his wife with at least one deliberate blow using a heavy cast iron pan. He then ordered a freezer from Argos and when it arrived a few days later, he put her body into the freezer.

“He left her there for nearly three years, telling friends, family and work colleagues and anyone else who inquired about her that she had died suddenly from natural causes.

Wallner, 34, formerly of Hamilton Avenue, Cobham, Surrey, denies murder.

Cheema said German-born Wallner admitted manslaughter, claiming he had not intended to do her serious harm.

Wallner was “infatuated” with his work colleague, Ms Harrison, and he convinced her he had separated from his wife.

“It may well be that the defendant had grown to loathe his wife and sought to be rid of her,” said Cheema. The trial was adjourned to today.