A CHEATING husband battered his wife to death and hid her body in a car roof box in their garden, a court heard yesterday.

Andre Genestin, 48, is said to have bludgeoned Catherine with a mallet after she discovered his affair with a woman he met on the internet.

He first hid her body in a cupboard under the stairs then stuffed it into a large car roof box he ordered online.

Frenchman Genestin, of Brighton, then told their young daughter and their friends that Catherine, 38, had left him for a lover.

Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex heard Genestin carried on as normal until his daughter told a primary school teacher she was worried about her mum.

Explosive

She then told her father she was being bullied at school so he would meet with her teacher.

The school called in social workers who alerted police.

Prosecutor Christine Laing said the girl who cannot be named showed considerable ingenuity

Cops discovered Cath-erines body along with books on getting rid of evidence and dealing with police interviews.

Ms Laing said the couple had an explosive relationship and Catherine twice reported him to police for hitting her.

Genestin denies murder.

Trial continues