German-born Brit kills wife, keeps corpse in freezer for three years

London, June 05 (ANI): A man in Britain murdered his wife and kept the dead body in a freezer at his home for three years.

Peter Wallner, 35, has been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison for the heinous crime.

The German-born ex-chef at London's five-star Lanesborough Hotel was caught after he tried to dump his wife Melanie's corpse in his wheelie bin three years after killing her.

The convict had told Melaine's father Petrus, who lives in South Africa, that she had died of a brain clot and been cremated.

"The man that asked for my blessing for my daughter's hand in marriage gruesomely killed her. My heart and soul is ripped into a million pieces," the Sun quoted the grieving father, as saying.

He added: "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.

"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?"

Wallner, who apparently had four women lovers, one of them a cop, while he was married to Melaine, hit her with a heavy iron skillet as she slept in their home in Cobham, Surrey.

An Old Bailey jury revealed that Wallner was planning to move to Malta after disposing the body, but was caught.

His crime was exposed after dustmen refused to lift the bin because it was too heavy.

Judge Stephen Kramer QC told Wallner: "You doubtless thought the body, once hidden in the bin, would be loaded in a dustcart. What you did was indeed appalling." (ANI)