Flies were clues to wife's fate

Neighbours thought the smell from the roof box was made by rotting fish

Swarms of flies and the terrible smell of "rotting fish" coming from a plastic box in a garden in Brighton were just two clues to the real fate of Catherine Genestin.

Andre Genestin, 48, claimed his Russian-born wife was prone to disappearing and had gone off with a man she met on the internet.

But it was only after his young daughter raised concerns about her mother's disappearance with her teachers that Mrs Genestin's real whereabouts was discovered.

On Wednesday a jury at Lewes Crown court convicted Andre Genestin of murdering his 38-year-old wife, who was also know as Katya.

Their relationship was said to be "tempestuous" and characterised by arguments and some domestic violence.

The smell just got stronger and stronger. It really was terrible Mandy Hogg

In June 2007, police prised open a car roof storage box to find the 38-year-old's still-clothed but decomposed body, wrapped in plastic and tarpaulin.

Irina Rosenbrand, a friend of Mrs Genestin from when the couple lived in Reading, Berkshire, said Katya had complained that Andre was having an affair with a woman from Ukraine.

And the prosecution said Genestin may have murdered his wife because she would have been in a position to blackmail him over "dubious business dealings" if they separated.

Genestin bought on the internet the plastic box that he would later use to hide his wife's body.

Crushed skull

Local children played with the packing when it arrived in Maresfield Road, Brighton, and Genestin's daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would often climb on to the box and slide down its curved lid.

Genestin used a mallet to crush the skull of 38-year-old Catherine

When she was asked whether she had ever been near the item, she said: "Yes, I've even been standing on it and sitting on it. I was pretending it was a slide and sliding down."

The court was told that Genestin crushed his wife's skull with a heavy blunt object as she sat on their lounge sofa, sometime between 11 and 14 May 2007.

He then stored her corpse in and around the house before dumping it in the storage box in the back garden.

A few weeks later residents living nearby noticed large numbers of flies swarming around the box and a very bad odour.

They assumed their neighbour was a keen angler and he was using the roof box to store fish he had caught.

One night one of them, Mandy Hogg, of Maresfield Road, crept into his garden to take a closer look, and knocked over the box, but it did not open.

She said: "I picked up the box and it sort of went just like that [tipped over] and I thought the fish had gone to one side.

"The smell just got stronger and stronger. It really was terrible."

But despite the smell, neighbours did not call the police.

He was talking in an ice cold, remorseless manner. And he said 'Yes you notice that I don't have any remorse' Alan Preston

Eventually Alan Preston, an elder at the Church of Christ the King, Brighton where the couple worshipped, became concerned about Catherine's whereabouts.

He sent an email to Genestin which read: "Hi Andre, We haven't seen Catherine at Beta for a few weeks... is everything ok? Do please let me know, I've been praying for her."

It would be at least a month before police discovered her decomposing body in the roof box Genestin said he bought to store bicycles.

Following his arrest Genestin asked Mr Preston to visit him while he was in jail.

'Isolated child'

Mr Preston said: "The irony of the situation was that he was talking in an ice cold, remorseless manner. And he said [to me] 'Yes you notice that I don't have any remorse'.

"But then he broke into tears and said he had to kill his wife in order to save his child from, I presume, dreadful mothering on behalf of Katya."

However the court was told that Mrs Genestin was a devoted mother who unplugged the house phone so she could play uninterrupted with her daughter.

Mr Preston said: "I feel deeply for her, that she's lost her mother, she's effectively lost her father as well, that her grandparents live in Russia and in France and that she's an isolated only child here in England."