Chef killed wife with pan and froze body

A CHEF was jailed for at least 20 years yesterday for killing his wife with a griddle pan and hiding her body in a freezer for three years.

Peter Wallner thought wife Melanie stood in the way of his womanising.

So he battered her with the cast iron pan as she slept at their home in Surrey in August 2006, the Old Bailey heard. Her body was later found in a wheelie bin.

He placed the body in a freezer in the garden shed and dumped it in the wheelie bin when he left the country with new girlfriend Lilia Fenech.

But dustmen refused to take the bin from in front of the house in Hamilton Avenue, Cobham, because it was too heavy. The landlord saw an ankle when he looked inside.

Wallner, 34, was arrested after he voluntarily returned from Malta last June, following an international media alert.

Wallner was found guilty of murder. He had tried to convince the jury of seven men and five women that it was manslaughter.

He claimed he had “lost the plot” after Melanie Wallner, 30, hit him with a rolling pin and confronted him about a text message from another woman.

He said he “acted like a scumbag” in trying to persuade her family and friends that she died from natural causes – presenting them with an urn containing ashes from a barbecue.

But the prosecution said he killed Melanie in cold blood as she slept with a mask over her eyes.

The following night he had sex on the mattress on which she died with wedding planner Emma Harrison.

Wallner had become infatuated with her after they met at the Woodlands Park Hotel, in Surrey, where they both worked.

After she dumped him, Wallner went on to have a number of new girlfriends as he played the grieving husband.

German-born Wallner met his South African wife at a hotel where they were working in 2001, and they married soon afterwards.

Bobbie Cheema, prosecuting, told the jury: “At the core of this case is the brutality and ruthlessness of this killing. She was murdered in cold blood.

“This was a senseless killing motivated by the greed of this man to make way for a different woman in his life.

“He is arrogant and brazen. He sees himself as a charmer, someone who can explain himself out of just about anything.

“He simply ignores the flawed nature of his personality, motivated by his wandering eye.

“Last summer, he still thought he could get away with it. He disposed of Melanie as if she was some waste to be dumped in a dustbin.”

Cheema added: “He apparently had no qualms about sleeping with Emma in the same bed where his wife had died not 24 hours earlier.”

Wallner bought Emma Harrison champagne at a romantic dinner to celebrate his 31st birthday.

Harrison said she thought he was separated from his wife and he later told her she had died suddenly.

She said: “He said he was going to have a private cremation.”

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

Wallner went on to tell lie after lie about his wife’s death, telling friends and family it was from natural causes, the court heard.

The Thistle Kensington Palace and Park Hotel where Melanie Wallner worked as an assistant beverages manager suggested a memorial service.

Prosecuting counsel said: “The defendant agreed enthusiastically. He helped with the organisation, requesting white lilies and printing memorial cards.

“Around 40 or 50 people attended. He made a speech praising his wonderful wife, but his bearing remained cold and emotionless.

“He was cold, unable to shed a tear and was dealing with the service ‘like he was arranging a business meeting’.”

Wallner showed no emotion as he was found guilty.