A COBHAM chef has been jailed for at least 20 years after he was convicted of brutally murdering his wife before hiding her body in a freezer for three years. The 35-year-old smashed his wife Melanie in the face with a le Creuset pan while she slept in their bed so that he could spend his birthday with his lover, Emmar Harrison. German-born Wallner, who was head chef at Woodlands Park Hotel in Cobham, then stored her body in a freezer he bought from Argos. He told Mrs Wallner's family in South Africa that she had died suddenly from an aneurysm. Her body was found stuffed in a wheelie bin outside the home they shared in Hamilton Avenue on June 6 last year. Sentencing Wallner to life in prison,to serve a minimum of 20 years before he will be considered for parole,Judge Stephen Kramer QC said: "you lied to Melanie's family, your work colleagues, your own girlfriends and other friends as to how Melanie died.