A MAN accused of strangling his de facto wife told Victorian police he used disinfectant spray and a scented candle to hide the smell of her decomposing body from neighbours.
Anthony Sherna also took his dog to a pet resort so it would not get distressed by the sight of her body before he buried it in the backyard, court documents allege.
"I didn`t want Hubble to smell or see or do anything because I didn`t want him to be traumatised," he told police.
The Melbourne Magistrates Court today committed Mr Sherna for trial for strangling Susanne Wild, 53, with his dressing gown cord on February 2. He pleaded not guilty to murder.
Mr Sherna, 42, of Tarneit, told police Ms Wild subjected him to years of verbal abuse, controlled his money and called him a "low-life". He confessed he killed his partner of 18 years after a fight over a mobile phone bill.
"Just every day was a pressure cooker day," he told police.
"All I did is work, come home. No social outings. We never ever went to dinner. Nothing.
"I reached the threshold of the horrible life that we had together. The constant put-downs of me. I just had enough."
Police allege Mr Sherna strangled Ms Wild after she queried the number of calls he made on his mobile phone.
He left her body on the kitchen floor then went out, visiting a pokie outlet and a brothel, court documents allege. The next day he dragged the body into her bedroom and left it on a bed for three days until the smell became unbearable.
Mr Sherna told police he bought an aerosol spray and a rose-scented candle to mask the smell from the neighbours and began digging a hole in the backyard, the documents say.
He waited until nightfall to drag the body, wrapped in sheets and plastic, into the grave.
Mr Sherna, an accounts manager, allegedly told police he was drunk on the night of the incident.
He said he drank eight cans of beer a day and Ms Wild drank six to eight bottles of red wine a week.
Magistrate Ian McGrane remanded Mr Sherna to appear for a Victorian Supreme Court directions hearing on September 29.
