Chef gets life for killing wife with griddle pan, hiding body in freezer then dumping her in wheelie bin
A chef who bettered his wife to death with a griddle pan and hid her body in a freezer for three years was jailed for life yesterday.
Womanising Peter Wallner went on to dump the body of his 30-year-old South African-born wife Melanie in a bin when he left the country with his latest girlfriend.
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 bin when he left the country with new girlfriend Lilia Fenech.
Cold-blooded killer: Peter Wallner, left, killed his wife Melanie, right, so he could continue his womanising ways. He hid her body in their freezer and then dumped her body in a wheelie bin before leaving the country
But dustmen refused to take the bin from the front of his house in Hamilton Avenue, Cobham, because it was too heavy. The landlord then saw an ankle when he looked inside.
Wallner, 34, was arrested after he voluntarily returned from Malta last June, following an international media alert.
He was found guilty of murder by a jury at the Old Bailey today and ordered to serve a minimum of 20 years.
Judge Stephen Kramer told Wallner: 'Your acts have rightly been described as despicable and appalling.
'You doubtless thought the body would be loaded into a dustcart and compacted so that what you had done would never be discovered.'
Wallner had claimed that it was manslaughter and said he 'lost the plot' after Mrs Wallner, 30, hit him with a rolling pin and confronted him about a text message from another woman.
But after he was found guilty, and just before he was sentenced, his counsel, Nicholas Griffiths QC, said he had been instructed by Wallner to apologise.
Hidden: Peter Wallner hid his wife's body in this freezer for three years before dumping it in a wheelie bin
He said: 'My client has asked me to say he sincerely apologises to the family for what he recognises as an awful thing he did, and for the pain and hurt he caused.'
'My heart and soul was ripped into a million pieces'
Melanie Wallner's father, Petrus Van Der Merwe, said he was 'haunted' every day by the horrific way in which she died.
In a witness impact statement, he added: 'While I was staying in Melanie's house after her 'supposed passing', she was right there in a freezer outside the house.
'That thought eats away at my soul every day of my life.
'Why didn't he just divorce her if he didn't want her any more?'
He said the family had just begun to come to terms with her sudden death when 'the dreadful truth of how our beloved daughter actually died was revealed'.
'It was as if she died for a second time and the terrible grief returned - this time coupled with anger and betrayal'.
He added: 'The man that asked for my blessing for my daughter's hand in marriage has gruesomely killed her.
'My heart and soul was ripped into a million pieces.'
Mr Van Der Merwe said of his daughter: 'She was always so delightful, happy and spontaneous.
'Melanie was the most amazing person. She had a very bubbly personality and was full of laughter.'
Wallner had tried to persuade family and friends that his wife died from natural causes - even presenting them with an urn full of fake ashes from a barbecue.
He placed his wedding ring with 'Melanie' inscribed on it into the urn before it was buried on her father's farm.
Immediately after the verdict, South African Petrus Van Der Merwe angrily hit out at Wallner for treating his daughter's body like 'rubbish'.
He said: 'Melanie wasn't rubbish - anything but. Peter Wallner thought it good to gruesomely murder her in the most unthinkable manner and freeze her in his property for three years.
'After that he threw her away... like trash, like rubbish in a wheelie bin.'
The prosecution said Wallner killed his wife 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 Melanie 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.
Supposed resting place: The urn he bought for the memorial with ashes from Peter Wallner's barbecue which he claimed were of his wife Melanie Wallner
'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.'
On the run: Peter Wallner handed himself in to police after running away with girlfriend Lilia Fenech to Malta
Miss 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 Miss Harrison champagne at a romantic dinner to celebrate his 31st birthday.
Miss 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 Mrs 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 her sudden passing was from natural causes, the court heard.
'It was a heartless and sustained effort to stop them discovering the truth, and how it added to their sorrow one can only imagine,' said Miss Cheema.
The Thistle Kensington Palace and Park Hotel where Mrs Wallner worked as an assistant beverages manager suggested a memorial service.
Miss Cheema 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.
How he tricked her family and said she died of aneurysm
Melanie Wallner's devastated mother said Peter Wallner tricked her into believing her daughter had died naturally.
Jeanne Oosthuizen said her 'suspicions kept growing' after Wallner called the family in South Africa in 2006 to break the news of her daughter's death.
Mrs Oosthuizen said Wallner told her his wife had collapsed in the night and died en route to hospital.
'Peter said he woke up and heard a crash and ran downstairs and found her downstairs.
'He said he started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and called the ambulance but she died on the way to hospital.
'He said her body was with the coroner, they would do a post-mortem and specify the cause of death.
'I asked if I should come to London and he said yes. But he made me promise not to look at Mel.
'He said her face was black and bruised and he would like us to remember her the way she was.'
Mrs Oosthuizen flew to the UK and met him and he urged her once again not to request to see her daughter's body.
Wallner later told Mrs Oosthuizen the coroner gave the cause of death as a brain aneurysm.
Mrs Oosthuizen said she started to become suspicious about the circumstances surrounding her daughter's death in 2007 and requested her death certificate.
She and her husband repeatedly asked Wallner for the documentation.
He would promise to deliver it to them by different means but avoided actually handing the certificate over, she said.
When Wallner was due to present them with the certificate, he would make excuses, often concerning the health and well-being of his family.
'I felt terrible for this man', said Mrs Oosthuizen. 'He lost his wife, then his father was ill and then his mother died.'
But she decided not to chase Wallner for the certificate. She last heard from him on Boxing Day 2008.
She and her husband were in the UK and requested to see him to collect the certificate, but he told her he was in Portugal 'spending his inheritance'.
'He was cold, unable to shed a tear and was dealing with the service "like he was arranging a business meeting".'
A memorial service was also arranged in Pretoria, South Africa, and Wallner was due to bring her 'ashes' with him.
'He purchased and filled a funeral urn with ashes of wood he had burnt on his barbecue especially for the purpose,' said Miss Cheema.
'Again the defendant went through the role of the grieving husband as the ashes were interred on Melanie's father's farm.'
Wallner had placed his wedding ring with Mrs Wallner's name on it into the urn.
Wallner spoke at the service and said 'he didn't believe in heaven, but he had heaven on Earth with Melanie'.
Wallner showed no emotion as he was found guilty. Judge Stephen Kramer said he would sentence him this afternoon.
Melanie's mother Jeanne Oosthuizen wept at the side of the court.
She said in a statement: 'It must be devastating for you to know this person, who you referred to as "the love of your life", was instrumental in your death.'
Mrs Wallner's father, Petrus Van Der Merwe, hit out at Wallner for treating his daughter's body like 'rubbish'.
He said: 'Peter Wallner thought it good to gruesomely murder her in the most unthinkable manner and put her lifeless body in a sleeping bag and freeze her in his own property for three years.
'After that he threw her away... like trash, like rubbish in a wheelie bin.'
He added in a statement to the judge: 'It haunts me every day to think that, while I was staying in Melanie's house after her "supposed passing", she was right there in a freezer outside the house.
'That thought eats away at my soul every day of my life. Why didn't he just divorce her if he didn't want her any more?'
He said the family had just begun to come to terms with her sudden death when 'the dreadful truth of how our beloved daughter actually died was revealed'.
'It was as if she died for a second time and the terrible grief returned - this time coupled with anger and betrayal,' he said.
He added: ''My heart and soul was ripped into a million pieces.'
Mr Van Der Merwe said of his daughter: 'She was always so delightful, happy and spontaneous.
'Melanie was the most amazing person. She had a very bubbly personality and was full of laughter.'
Detective Superintendent Maria Woodall said after the verdict: 'Peter Wallner is a cold-blooded killer who brutally murdered his innocent wife and then went to extraordinary lengths to try and conceal his crime.
'His lack of remorse for what he did to Melanie knew no bounds and he told lie after lie in a heartless attempt to evade capture.'
Cold-hearted: The invitation to the memorial service at the hotel where Melanie Wallner worked, where Wallner gave a speech about his 'beloved' wife
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