Man faces murder charges

The German man whose first wife was found dumped in a bin in Surrey while he was in Malta was charged with her murder yesterday.

Unemployed chef Peter Wallner was charged by the Surrey police with murder and preventing the lawful burial of his former wife after her badly decomposed body was found on Saturday in a wheelie bin outside the house he shared with his new Maltese wife Lilia Fenech.

Mr Wallner, 33, who voluntarily flew to the UK when he found out the Surrey police were looking for him, was arrested the minute he landed at Gatwick Airport, at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, after the body was identified as that of his missing wife Melanie. She was identified on Wednesday through dental records.

The British police had launched a manhunt for the couple when her body was found outside their former residence in Hamilton Avenue, Cobham.

A post-mortem examination found that she had suffered a serious head injury but the cause of death was inconclusive.

When contacted on Wednesday, Ms Fenech's father, Martin, defended his daughter and contested reports describing her as Mr Wallner's lover. He insisted his daughter was married to Mr Wallner and that his previous wife had died three years ago.

Ms Fenech herself categorically denied she or her husband had anything to do with the murder. After the police announced that her husband had been charged with the murder, she refused to comment.

"Leave me alone," she yelled before she hung up.

On Wednesday, when Mr Wallner was arrested, she had also refused to confirm whether he had been arrested saying "it might or might not be", refusing to reply to further questions.

Detectives are investigating whether Mrs Wallner's body was kept in a freezer or stored elsewhere before she was placed in the bin, according to the Times of London.

Following Mr Wallner's arrest, the police said they no longer needed Ms Fenech for questioning. Her details had been circulated because they wanted to track down Mr Wallner, a spokesman for the Surrey police said, never referring to Ms Fenech as his wife.

The couple had packed their belongings in a white rental Volkswagen van and drove across the English Channel to Malta. The Surrey police had appealed for information about the couple and their van, which was tracked down in San Ġwann on Tuesday evening.

The van is still parked there and while the Surrey police are making arrangements to have it returned to the rental company which owns it, a spokesman said it was not central to the investigation. In fact, it was not examined by forensic experts.

Melanie Wallner would have been 32 on November 10 last year but it remains unclear when she died exactly. She was born in South Africa but lived for many years in the UK, the Surrey police said.

They called on anybody who knew her to make contact, especially those who had seen her since August 2006.