Peter Wallner convicted of murdering his wife

04/06/2010

A German national was given life imprisonment at the Old Bailey on 4th June after a jury convicted him of murdering his South African wife. He will have to serve 20 years' imprisonment before being considered for parole.

Peter Wallner stored his wife Melanie Van Der Merwe's body in a freezer for three years. He disposed of it in a wheelie bin outside their home in Cobham just before he left the country with his new girlfriend. Melanie's body was discovered when his landlords went to clear the empty house and they found a bin dustmen had refused to take away because it was too heavy.

Wallner, 34, admitted manslaughter and said that he acted in self defence when his wife confronted him about his womanising, but the jury found him guilty of murder. They had heard that he had woven an elaborate series of lies about Melanie's death, took part in memorial services in the UK and in South Africa and had taken a funeral urn to South Africa filled with ashes from his barbecue for her family to bury.

The prosecution was able to prove that the defendant killed his wife with blows to her head, and then put her body into a freezer which he purchased especially, leaving her there for nearly three years telling her family, friends, work colleagues and anyone else who enquired about her, that she had died suddenly from natural causes.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Michael Spong said:

"The defendant did everything he could to prevent discovery. He no doubt hoped that his wife's body would be mechanically emptied into a refuse lorry. Yet, the investigation uncovered a web of lies and deception spun by Peter Wallner in an attempt to escape a fully justified conviction for murder; an attempt which succeeded for a three year period.

"We relied upon three significant matters of evidence: the date of her death, the cause and circumstances of her death and the defendant's behaviour after his wife's death.

"When the defendant told people of his wife's death, he told them she had died on 1st September. However, the prosecution's case was that she is most likely to have died on 27th August. Significantly, despite the decomposition of the victim's remains it was possible for forensic scientists to examine the contents of her stomach. The stage of digestion suggested that the victim died 4-8 hours after consuming her last meal, the contents of which was as witnesses described. There was nothing found to support the defendant's account of eating steak in bed before the argument which led to her death.

"He murdered his wife at the house they shared to pursue his relationship with his new girlfriend and other women. He showed no remorse whatsoever for his actions."