Daughter's nightmare of mother falling out of cupboard led police to her body

Catherine Genestin, 38, was eventually discovered after her young daughter had a nightmare about her body falling out of a cupboard, and raised the alarm with teachers.

The child had been in bed when she overheard her mother and father, Andre, 48, having a blazing row.

Mrs Genestin had learnt that her husband had an internet lover, a female Ukrainian student whom he was helping to get a UK visa.

Scroll down for more...

He smashed his wife's skull with a mallet as she sat on the sofa in their semi-detached house in Brighton last May, Lewes Crown Court heard.

Genestin stored her body in an understairs cupboard before moving it to a car roof box in the back garden.

He spun a 'web of lies' to conceal his wife's disappearance, claiming she had run off with an Italian lover and sending emails from her account to friends, Christine Laing QC told the jury.

She said: 'The first person to doubt his account was his daughter. She had heard her mum and dad arguing and when she got up the next day her mum was not there.

'She did all she could to get other adults to look into the situation, speaking to her teachers to get them to do something.'

When her class teacher failed to take action, she invented a story that she was being bullied to get the headmistress's attention.

Scroll down for more...

The head told social services and the following month police found Mrs Genestin's body in the box her husband had bought days after her death.

The daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, later told police she had gone into the cupboard where her mother was initially kept about two weeks after she went missing because she thought there would be a body in there.

Miss Laing said: 'She spoke of a dream about opening a cupboard door and her mum's body falling out.

'She thought her mum must be dead because otherwise she would have been missing her and would have come back for her.'

Before the body was found, the court heard, neighbours had climbed over the fence to investigate the 'horrendous' smell coming from the box, which had flies swarming around it, but they were unable to open it.

One neighbour saw Genestin scooping liquid oozing from the box into a mug and polishing the sides with a rag.

Officers who broke into the casket discovered the body wrapped in plastic bags and a tarpaulin. They also found books in his house giving advice on how to remove traces of blood and fingerprints, as well as tactics for answering police questions.

The couple were both French nationals but moved to Britain soon after they married.

They were regular churchgoers and Genestin had spoken to a pastor about the possibility of becoming a minister shortly before his wife's death.

He is believed to have worked as a civil servant but was unemployed when he was arrested. He is said to have boasted to friends about his 'dodgy dealings' and benefit fraud.

His wife was a receptionist at a gym and was applying to be a classroom assistant.

Genestin admits killing his wife but denies murder. He said he did not intend to kill her or cause her serious bodily harm.

He said that he was provoked by her behaviour and reacted in a way that any reasonable person would do in such a situation.

The trial continues.