00:00:04
[dramatic music] - When a murder's committed, it's always a race against
time to find the truth,
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to separate fact from fiction, to catch the killer and to make
sure that justice is served.
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[dramatic music] But what happens when the
truth vanishes with the victim? I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd and
I've spent my entire career
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as a forensic pathologist
performing nearly 23,000 autopsies. [music intensifies]
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I've learned that the
dead don't hide the truth, and they never lie. Through me you'll be hearing
directly from the victim
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with the aid of a
state-of-the-art laboratory using groundbreaking technology. I'll be investigating a
series of intriguing crimes.
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Where from the victim's bodies. I'll reveal to you the
truth behind these murders.
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[camera snapping] [pensive music] On the 6th of March, 2019, police in West London
made an awful discovery
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in the back garden of
a flat in Richmond. In a flowerbed
covered by loose soil, they found the body of a woman
buried in a shallow grave.
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The discovery came
about after London's metropolitan police received
a missing person report.
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Beat officers were
sent to an address on Richmond's leafy Daryl Road. - Local police have
attended the address.
00:01:45
Having gone in, there was no, no signs of a big disturbance
or anything like that,
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and inside the flat assault. But in the back
garden at the bottom, they found a raised flower
bed with some wild flowers
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just placed on the top. There was a spade with
some fresh earth on it and a bag of compost.
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- The soil was brand
new that the garden looked like it had a makeover
just in one side of it.
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Fresh soil. - So they made a
decision to do a, a gentle sift
through this mound.
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And about six inches down, they came across a
blue plastic bag. Went on a little bit further
and about another six inches,
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another blue plastic bag, only this bag they felt
like they could feel like a human toe.
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- And it was right at
that point that very, very shallow in there,
a couple of inches,
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they discovered what
they thought was potentially a human
being wrapped in bags.
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- They must have wondered, what on earth have
we come to here? It must have been a
most traumatic shock.
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- What is clear is that this
is a suspicious crime scene. And of course the
person in that grave
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didn't put themselves there. So the officer's training
and all that information
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they've had as police
officers kicks in, and they know then to
get out of that property
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as quickly as possible, secure
it at the front and the back, any possible routes in and out,
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because you are looking
at what is quite obvious at that point a murder scene. - [Richard] Detective Chief
Inspector Simon Harding
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was brought in to
head up the case. - At the time I was the
senior investigating officer,
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the DCI in charge of one of
the murder teams in London. When I first got there, the,
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the cord and tape was
literally on the front gate. So we expanded that, you
know, very, very quickly to,
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to both ends of the road, because if someone
has done something, they've made their
way off up a road
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and thrown something in a
hedge, then you know, you, you want to be as sure as
you can to try and identify
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if there is a weapon or
even a dropped something personal like a credit
card or driving license.
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- [Richard] Scenes of
crime officers were rushed straight to the property. - And the forensic
archeologist has attended scene
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to do a fingertip
excavation to sift and find that anything may be
relevant to the scene
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and discard anything
else that isn't. Once we get down to
the level of the body,
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we can then have a better idea
of what we're dealing with. And this is when
we were able to see
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that we had a female
in a bag in the ground. She was, she was wrapped
in a inflatable mattress,
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which appeared to
have been gaff taped around the knee
and the neck area. So the body is now
removed from this grave,
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placed into a body bag, secured and taken to the
mortuary for the postmortem. [gentle piano music]
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- The woman found buried
in her own back garden was identified as 34-year-old
Laureline Garcia Bertaux.
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- Laureline was found
naked, wrapped in plastic, with her hands bound behind
her back by duct tape.
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There was also an electrical
cable around her neck. And so the first thing I
would do is look for evidence
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whether this was the
cause of her death. In cases of ligature
strangulation, there's tremendous pressure
placed on the neck,
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and it can cause
damage to the larynx here in the front of the throat. And here's the hyoid.
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It's a horseshoe shaped
piece of cartilage in the top of the larynx, and it's important for
swallowing and tongue movements.
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You can see here below the
hyoid that there are portions of the thyroid cartilage
that stick up and stick down.
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And when the neck is squeezed, these can be damaged
and can even snap off. And the postmortem showed
that there was this damage
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to Laureline's larynx that
could only have been caused by severe and consistent
pressure to her neck.
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And that confirmed that
she died of asphyxiation. Now, police knew that
Laureline had been strangled,
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they had to work out why
anyone would want her dead. So detectives put Laureline's
life under the microscope.
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- So when you start looking
back at someone's life, friends and family and work,
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we saw that Laureline
was incredibly popular. No one had a bad word
to say about her.
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She was so well liked. She
was incredibly hardworking. - Her neighbors described
her as very quiet.
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They knew her 'cause
she had two big dogs. They'd often see her walking
her dogs around the area.
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Originally from France, she
moved to the UK in around 2009, as well as working in PR,
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She also worked in the film
business as a producer, where she worked with people
including Dame Joan Collins.
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- She worked on some
very big productions, and with some incredibly
famous people as well.
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- Her friends who she had
many of, described her as very confident, outgoing,
talkative, very creative,
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and someone who's
full of promise. - [Richard] There were no
clues in Laureline's character
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to suggest the motive. - The body had been bound and, from behind her feet and legs.
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And it could have to
all intents and purposes suggested a sexual
sadistical murderer here.
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But this is more of a
coldly executed murder. The body was actually lying
in an extremely shallow grave.
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So clearly this is somebody
yes it was planned, but they hadn't really
taken a lot of time.
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- [Richard] To
identify her killer, Simon and his team poured
over Laureline's case file,
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starting from when she was
first reported missing. - The police local to where
Laureline Garcia Bertaux lived
00:08:21
were called by some
friends of her, because they hadn't seen
her or heard from her
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in a few days. - So Laureline failed to
turn up to work at a PR firm in London on Monday morning.
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And her friends and colleagues
were extremely worried. It's completely out
of character for her.
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- They'd waited 24 hours, and by the Tuesday she
still hadn't made contact
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with anybody or been to work. And so they called the police
and reported her missing.
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- And the police obviously
took this very seriously, because unusually, they
released an appeal for her.
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So they obviously knew
something was wrong. - And it got to the point
where there's still nothing,
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still no traffic on her phone, no sightings, doesn't
contact friends or family,
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which she does on an
absolute regular basis. And so now there's
a real concern.
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- [Richard] The officer's
notes from the first check of Laureline's home revealed
some intriguing clues.
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- There's no, no signs
of any forced entry. So it wasn't like
somebody broken in
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and this is a
burglary gone wrong. There was nothing
untoward or outta place. There was no, no visible
blood, no weapons.
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- From friends and from all
sorts of things that we, we hear about, Laureline
is moving house.
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Inside the house were
boxes that were packed. A bed had been dismantled and, and with the information that
had that she was supposed
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to be moving house and
she should have gone, then obviously that was
very odd to find that
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and not find her. What they could see was the
dogs, the dogs were there, they were very subdued,
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and there was enormous
amount of food. So almost too much food
had been put out for them,
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which again is, is slightly
suspicious, you know, why would you do that if
you're looking after dogs?
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[pensive music] - [Richard] As forensic
specialists scoured Laureline's home, reporters
arrived on the scene.
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- Already there was
a huge police cord and up around the garden. You could see forensics
officers working at the scene,
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a tent erected over the garden. And there's still a missing
poster for Laureline
00:10:42
on the railings of a
nearby primary school. There was still
children playing. So for this to happen
in a very affluent area
00:10:52
of West London, very
quiet area, very leafy, it's completely unexpected
for the neighbors.
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They're absolutely horrified that something like this
could happen on their streets.
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And it's not just any kind of
murder, it's cold calculated. It's horrifying.
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And you know, police
haven't made an arrest. So this person, whoever
did it, is still out there.
00:11:29
[gentle piano music] - [Richard] In March 2019, police found 34-year-old
Laureline Garcia
Bertaux strangled
00:11:37
with a cable and buried
in a shallow grave in her garden at her
west London home.
00:11:45
Here, police hunted
for forensic clues that could lead to
Laureline's killer.
00:11:52
- There is so much to do in, in the first
especially 24 hours, 48 hours of a murder inquiry.
00:11:57
Officers would do fingertip
searching in gardens. We'd, we'd have the drains
in that road as well,
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what we call gully sucks. And that is where
they put these big sucking mechanisms down there,
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and bring everything
up in there. And then officers would,
would search through the muck
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to see if there's
anything there. So all that was being done. We couldn't find anything
at that stage that was,
00:12:20
that seemed relevant. - So detectives hoped
Laureline's body could reveal more
truths about her murder.
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Laureline's neck was
crushed with such force that the coroner said
they had never seen
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such a severe case of asphyxia. The postmortem showed
damage to Laureline's larynx
00:12:42
that could only have
been caused by severe and consistent
pressure to her neck. And that confirmed that
she died of asphyxiation.
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But the clues to her last
moments are the bruises and fractures of her ribs. While squeezing her
neck with the cable,
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the killer was also
compressing her chest, and this is known as Burking. It's named after William Burke,
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who in 1828 together with
his accompanied William Hare, murdered a number of people
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and sold their bodies
to medical schools. He killed his victims by
simply sitting on their chest.
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When we breathe, our ribs
and lungs work together as a single sealed unit. As the ribs expand upwards,
the chest cavity is enlarged
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and air is drawn into the lungs to let oxygen get into the body. If there's pressure on
the front of the chest,
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the ribs can't move,
the lungs can't expand, the air can't enter the lungs,
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and the person will asphyxiate. It's a particularly cruel
way to kill someone,
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slowly depriving their
body and brain of oxygen. But who would inflict
this kind of death on her?
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- The pathologist
said there was extreme pressure on the chest area. You know, these are things
that, that show that
00:14:04
that person is extremely
violent and very strong as well, and also very determined.
00:14:12
- [Richard] So who was this
powerful and violent killer? A clue, perhaps late in
the last text messages
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Laureline sent to her friends. - Laureline has started
to go onto dating sites. No success, but there were
messages to friends saying,
00:14:29
"I've met this fit vet." And of course we then thought,
well, there's a potential
00:14:34
that she's with somebody
she's met in a dating site, and it could be this
person that has done this.
00:14:40
And of course, so we go into
that company and identify, you know, anybody that
she's been linked with,
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and she might have met. She wasn't linked with anyone. So we thought, well, this
is, this doesn't make sense.
00:14:53
- [Richard] Laureline's
friends told police about other text messages
they'd received from her
00:14:57
that seemed out of character. - The messages kept coming, that she was having a great
time spending all this money,
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buying shoes, clothes, and that she was going
out shopping now, which was unusual because
Laureline used to shop online,
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would never really
go out shopping. - And they also said she
was going to spend money
00:15:16
on a boob job or a hot tub, which was completely
not Laureline. - And the friends
were like, this isn't,
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this is not the way
that Laureline talks. And also, you know, the
manner in which these texts
00:15:27
were being said that the, the
phraseology used, they said, this is nothing
like her whatsoever.
00:15:36
- [Richard] One name kept
coming up in the text, A man called Kirill. Many of them thanked him
or spoke highly of him.
00:15:47
They said he'd recently
paid Laureline back money he owed her, totaling
thousands of pounds.
00:15:53
- A lot of saying how
grateful she was for him giving her money
and helping her move
00:15:58
to a new beautiful house. - This person was identified
as Kirill Belorusov, a boyfriend that was on
and off for 10 years,
00:16:07
and more off than on. She'd kind of split up with
him a couple of years ago and she was trying to,
to move on with her life.
00:16:18
Officers dive into his
life to try and find out what he's about. And what we identify is mainly
what people tell us about him
00:16:25
as opposed to what we can
actually find out about him. - Belorusov was born in Russia,
00:16:34
but he was an Estonian national. He came to the UK at around
the same time as Laureline,
00:16:40
in around 2009. He claims to have
been in the Navy before moving to the
UK to learn English.
00:16:49
He also said he worked in the
film industry as a stunt man. - Not just a stunt man locally,
00:16:58
but a stunt man for Hollywood. That he'd been in loads of films
with people like Brad Pitt,
00:17:03
and that this was,
this was his lifestyle. You know, this is, this
glamorous lifestyle.
00:17:10
- [Richard] But friends
told police of a darker side to Laureline's on off boyfriend.
00:17:17
- He would bring her
down in what he said, whatever it might be, just
to consistently put her down.
00:17:23
- He was very controlling. He was controlling
even how she thought about her own body
image, telling her that,
00:17:31
you know, she needed
to lose weight. Picking at her, picking
at her, finding fault,
00:17:37
but at the same time,
boosting his own ego. - He would always be the person
that's working in Hollywood.
00:17:44
So, you know, you are
nowhere near as good as me. You don't deserve
the things that that,
00:17:48
that I get and everything else. - So he's becoming this
big person in his own mind.
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- You know, Laureline was
actually in the film industry. She was doing that work.
00:18:00
He couldn't afford for
her to be better than him. He hated that kind
of relationship
00:18:06
where he felt
underneath somebody. - [Richard] Detectives trawled
through movie databases
00:18:13
to find proof of Belorusov's
glittering career. - No trace whatsoever. You know, there is no
existence for him having a job,
00:18:21
or getting any form of
funding in the UK at all. - He'd bragged and boasted
that he was a somebody
00:18:27
in a film business
when clearly he wasn't. - He also claimed to be a
bouncer or a security guard,
00:18:34
providing close protection
to important people. In reality, he mainly
worked in bars and clubs
00:18:41
around London. - This man was a fantasist. - We also find out that, that
Belorusov has told everybody
00:18:50
for the last 10 years
that he has cancer, and that this cancer is,
is advanced, and that he,
00:18:58
he's seeking treatment in
the UK and abroad for it. - It seems they often
argued about money.
00:19:06
He would ask
Laureline for money, which he claimed he needed
to pay for cancer treatment.
00:19:11
And when she asked for it
back, he refused to repay it. Came up with excuses. - Laureline was
living on her own.
00:19:19
She had a flat to run,
dogs to look after, train fares to pay. She was, she was more or
less down to her last penny,
00:19:27
giving this man
everything that she could. - He names the, the
hospitals he goes to,
00:19:32
and that he's away
for four or five days. So we start to look at that, and we can find
no trace in the UK
00:19:39
privately or within the public
health system of him ever, ever seeking any treatment
00:19:45
for any form of
cancer whatsoever. - So this lovely young
woman who would've had
00:19:52
this amazing career is being
chipped away bit by bit by this man who
will have control.
00:20:01
And even when he is
not living with her, he's still actually
controlling her.
00:20:06
He's texting her and getting
her to send him images of herself naked while
asking for money,
00:20:14
telling her they'll
be together again. He's very, very controlling. - [Richard] Investigators
needed to find a link
00:20:24
with Belorusov in the days
leading up to Laureline's death. - The friends had said,
well, she was with him on,
00:20:32
she was with him days before. And when we looked
back at her finances, you could see that
there was transactions
00:20:40
in local restaurants
only a matter of days before the body was found. When you spend money in
a shop or a restaurant,
00:20:47
then most of the time there
is CCTV to go with it. [pensive music] On Friday, the 1st of March,
00:21:02
you can see that she is at
a restaurant with a man. And this man is, is Belorusov.
00:21:08
And he's with her
in a restaurant,
they're holding hands, they're drinking
Prosecco or champagne.
00:21:13
Then you see them on CCTV
we managed to get from a bus as they traveled home. And you can see there
that that Belorusov is,
00:21:21
is stroking her leg. - He was being very
cozy to her on the bus going back to her house,
looking like he was very caring.
00:21:32
So when he gets to the
flat, he stays that night. - And then we see the Saturday
where the pair of them
00:21:42
go out shopping. They go to Pets At
Home and buy dog food. They go to Sainsbury's, they
do normal sort of shopping
00:21:54
that they would do. - They had a nice day together
so yes, had a good weekend, but he's using
Laureline for sex,
00:22:04
and he's using her for cash. She's a cash cow, and he'll
keep coming back for cash
00:22:12
even though he owes
her this money. - [Richard] The pictures
from that Saturday were the last images
of Laureline alive.
00:22:24
[pensive music] But on CCTV, the day
Laureline was found, detective spotted Belorusov
some 40 miles from Richmond.
00:22:37
- He's already got
himself to Luton Airport on the Wednesday. He then
flies out to Estonia.
00:22:43
So of course he was
still in the country when the body was discovered,
but had already booked
00:22:48
and was already on his way out. - So he ends up back
in Estonia where he, where he is celebrating his
32nd birthday with his friends.
00:22:56
He just acted normally,
nothing out of place. - We have a phone
number for him. Officers are calling him,
00:23:04
and they're getting
in contact with him, and he's, he's now
abroad, he's in Estonia.
00:23:08
And they're saying to
him, you know what, what's happened?
Can you help us?
00:23:11
We understand that you were
with her only on Saturday, and she was moving house.
00:23:16
And what they got
response for him was, "oh yes I was, but I
left her. She was fine.
00:23:20
She was going off to,
to this new house." And what's clear to
those officers is that
00:23:26
he really has no intention
of coming back and helping. Everyone thought,
well, if you are,
00:23:31
and especially the family
and friends, you know, if your girlfriend of 10
years had gone missing
00:23:36
in these circumstances,
which are highly suspicious, then you would be here. - [Richard] Investigators
hoped Laureline's body
00:23:44
could give up more evidence
linking her to Belorusov. Meanwhile, detectives had
a manhunt on their hands.
00:23:53
- So we know we're dealing
with a really callous, coercive controlling
type of human being.
00:23:58
And, and, and so we know we
had somebody really dangerous and we needed to get him
as quickly as possible.
00:24:14
- In March, 2019 as police in
West London were on the hunt for the killer of
34-year-old film producer
00:24:23
Laureline Garcia Bertaux, her body gave up more grim
secrets for the investigators.
00:24:31
Laureline's body tells us
that she was asphyxiated, but there were no other
signs of a struggle.
00:24:36
Her fingernails were intact, and there was no obvious
bruising, scratches, or other cuts around the
arms to suggest Laureline
00:24:44
had tried to fend
off her killer. It would appear the attack
was completely unexpected.
00:24:52
Internal swabs were
taken to look for signs of a sexual assault, and
toxicology samples were tested
00:24:58
to see if her attacker
had drugged his victim. Toxicology showed no
evidence of date rape
00:25:05
or indeed any other drugs. And it was concluded that she hadn't been
sexually assaulted.
00:25:13
This evidence from
Laureline's body suggested she knew her attacker. And there was more proof
pointing to her ex-boyfriend,
00:25:22
Estonian Kirill Belorusov. - We can obviously see
him on CCTV with Laureline in the restaurant and on
the bus on that Saturday.
00:25:34
But then we start to see
other things on the Sunday. Now of course we
believe that Laureline
00:25:40
had been killed late,
very late Saturday night, or in the early hours
of Sunday morning.
00:25:45
So what was he doing now
in the following days? On the Sunday, we can see
him with the financial
00:25:57
transactions and CCTV
going into a home base, which is literally
five minutes walk from,
00:26:03
from the address itself. - Belorusov is on
CCTV on his own, that this is one
of the few times
00:26:10
CCTV actually shows
them being apart. - And he's buying things
like rubble sacks,
00:26:18
an ax, garden shoes,
and also buying soil. - When I'm working
on a murder inquiry,
00:26:26
it's not just the
body that I look at, it's everything
associated with it.
00:26:31
And in Laureline's case, we know that her hands were
bound together by duct tape.
00:26:36
Now, duct tape has two
surfaces that are superb in retaining both
fingerprints and DNA.
00:26:45
The tape would be sent
off to the laboratory to try and lift
fingerprints or swab
00:26:50
for traces of the suspect's DNA, so these could be matched
on police databases.
00:26:55
But neither showed a link
to Belorusov or anyone else. There was however damning
evidence found on CCTV.
00:27:03
- The footage caught him
buying the duct tape, all the tools he needed
to dispose of her body.
00:27:09
And he even bought some beer
for himself on the way home. - What we could see in the
address was a bag of soil.
00:27:22
What we could see on
the body was bags, which were identical. And of course we can see
him as clear as anything
00:27:29
on CCTV buying these
items the day after we believe that Laureline
had been murdered.
00:27:37
Then we see him in
the days afterwards starting to make his
way out of the country.
00:27:43
- He's decided that he will
make his way to Estonia. He was searching flights, so,
00:27:50
and then onto the train
station up to Luton Airport. And he was gone. - [Richard] As police worked
to get a precise location
00:27:58
for their suspect, they had a major breakthrough
in the investigation. - The body had been wrapped
in an inflatable mattress.
00:28:08
Now, each end of this mattress
there was a silver colored gaffer tape wrapped around the
knee area and the neck area.
00:28:14
And she also had a
cord around her neck. They would be submitted
for fingerprints and DNA.
00:28:21
With the results
that we had back, the cord around Laureline's neck had both a match of her
DNA and Belorusov's DNA.
00:28:31
He has an awful lot
of explaining to do, how his DNA managed
to get on that cord.
00:28:37
- [Richard] But actually
pinning Belorusov down was another matter. - So officers are
speaking to Belorusov
00:28:44
whilst he's in Estonia. You know, apparently he's
celebrating his birthday,
00:28:49
and with with friends, and
he has family over there. And it was clear there was
no way he's coming back.
00:28:56
So that's when we start to, we instigate different
proceedings to, to basically go and get him.
00:29:02
And at the time we could do
a European arrest warrant. [pensive music] - [Richard] With the CCTV
and forensic evidence
00:29:14
stacked against their suspect, they convinced a UK court
to issue the paperwork.
00:29:21
- Myself and a colleague
flew to the Hague to the Euro Poll Building, and we'd hand delivered
this European arrest warrant
00:29:29
to get Kirill Belorusov. And we sat in a room with the
Estonian prosecution service
00:29:34
and a senior police officer
from Europol, from Estonia. And we handed the paperwork
over, they were ready,
00:29:40
and they believed they had
enough and we had enough. And it was in that
room that that officer
00:29:46
called his officers
once it had been agreed and they arrested
Belorusov immediately.
00:29:51
[sirens] So it was almost
instant, you know, incredible cooperation that
we had from those authorities
00:29:59
to secure his arrest. [pensive music continues] Part of the process then is to
get our expedition unit team
00:30:07
to, to go to Estonia
and bring him back. They brought him
back to Heathrow. He's then taken into custody
at Heathrow Police Station,
00:30:16
where the first thing that
happens to Kirill Belorusov is that he is charged
formally with the murder
00:30:20
of Laureline Garcia Bertaux. - [Richard] Now they had
their suspect in custody. Police seized Belorusov's phone.
00:30:33
His deleted messages
revealed what happened in Laureline's final hours. - Laureline is moving house.
00:30:44
This is a fundamental
important part of this case because she's going, she should have gone
on Saturday morning,
00:30:50
but she hadn't gone. - She's been spending days
boxing everything up ready.
00:30:55
So you can imagine her
excitement at this point, thinking where she was off to. - So why didn't she
move on the days
00:31:03
that she was supposed to? And what we start to see
through telephone calls is that she had a
removal company booked,
00:31:11
but she canceled that removal
company on the Friday. Friends started to
call and say to her,
00:31:19
what, you know,
what's happening? And she comes up with this
story to her friends to say,
00:31:23
well actually what's happened
is I'm moving to a place that Belorusov has
found me free of charge.
00:31:30
And it's somebody that he
knows within the film industry, and they've got
this amazing house.
00:31:36
I don't know where it is
'cause he hasn't told me, but we're gonna go there anyway.
00:31:40
But I've also had to
cancel my removal company, because he sorted one
out for me as well.
00:31:47
- She was waiting
for the removal van. She had everything there,
and yet no removal van came.
00:31:55
- She starts to
panic, where are they? And she's speaking
to her friend saying,
00:31:59
well, they've not
arrived. What's going on? People are saying, well,
where are you going?
00:32:03
"I still don't know yet,
he hasn't told me yet." - There was nowhere she was
going. It was all one big lie.
00:32:10
So she was left high and dry. - We believe it gets to that
point now where she said,
00:32:17
"what's going on? This
is all a complete lie." - This could well have
led to an argument
00:32:22
that put her at risk because
this man was ruthless. - And we think that's
when Belorusov decided to,
00:32:29
he, he can go no further. He has to murder her. - This man was so
cold and calculated,
00:32:45
and so lacking in empathy
for this poor girl that he'd murdered. He just logged
onto her internet,
00:32:55
working out what her
password would be, which sadly happened
to be his name, and has started to watch porn.
00:33:04
It's hatred. It, it's
somebody who hates women, probably frightened of women.
00:33:09
He's got no empathy, no respect. - [Richard] To add to that, a forensic scan of
Laureline's phone
00:33:18
revealed more about those
suspicious text messages. - These were actually
being sent within
00:33:24
the cell of her home address. And, and of course this was
on a day when she was dead.
00:33:33
So we knew whoever
was doing that was pretty much sitting within
her wifi of her address.
00:33:39
What we could also see
is that Belorusov's phone was hit in the
same cell as well.
00:33:47
He was using Laureline's
phone to actually message her friends and telling her
that he'd paid 7,000 pounds,
00:33:53
another lump sum of 10,000
pounds back to Laureline. - [Richard] This 17,000 pounds
was only part of the debt
00:34:01
Belorusov owed Laureline. - He also used the
phone to send messages to himself thanking him for
the money that he'd given her.
00:34:09
One of the messages
was obviously trying to throw investigators
off the scent, saying she was due to meet
a vet for dates, for coffee.
00:34:20
- He hijacks Laureline's phone, and is texting friends to
like cover for himself.
00:34:26
He's so self-possessed. He's not upset, he's
not nervous, not sorry.
00:34:32
- He was using Google Translate in French to
message her brother. - Google Translate,
to translate French
00:34:41
into a language he
would understand. And of course, this was being
done on Laureline's phone.
00:34:47
Well, she wouldn't
need that, would she? [pensive music] - [Richard] Meanwhile,
the deep forensic search
00:34:57
of Belorusov's phone revealed
something yet more sinister. - We identify there's
another phone number,
00:35:04
which is a regular contact, and what we find there
is another woman, another girlfriend who lives
in another part of London.
00:35:12
When we speak to her, he's,
he's doing the same thing. He's taking money from
her, he's living with her.
00:35:18
She thinks he's got cancer.
She thinks he's a stunt man. And when he said he's
going away for five days
00:35:23
to seek treatment in a
hospital in London for cancer, what he's actually doing is
going to stay with Laureline.
00:35:29
And when Laureline believes
he's going to five days in a hospital to seek
treatment for cancer
00:35:33
or go on a stunt film, he goes to live with
the other female. - Belorusov was a game player.
00:35:40
He was playing games
the whole time. He was boosting his ego,
boosting his pocket,
00:35:46
using these women
in a very cruel way. - [Richard] In a
text to one woman, Belorusov said chillingly,
I'd kill for you.
00:35:57
- He practiced death holds
on another girlfriend. - We found one particular
person who talked about
00:36:05
how violent he was during
their sexual intimacy, and he would often use quite
severe force in strangulation
00:36:13
and believe it was something
that, that they would enjoy. - Clearly when somebody's
doing that, they're practicing.
00:36:21
He's moving on up this chain towards actually
committing murder. But clearly, if he's
prepared to do that,
00:36:33
he, he's a very, very
amoral dangerous man. - [Richard] The case
was building against
Kirill Belorusov.
00:36:45
- The evidence was, was very,
very strong against him. We were very confident
that we had enough
00:36:50
that a jury would
find him guilty. [gentle music] - In 2019, the
ex-boyfriend of 34-year-old
00:37:10
Laureline Garcia Bertaux
became the main suspect for her murder after
the postmortem revealed
00:37:16
she had been asphyxiated. Laureline was buried in the
garden of her west London home.
00:37:24
She was wrapped in rubble
sacks and covered in soil bought by Estonian
Kirill Belorusov.
00:37:33
And Laureline's broken
ribs suggested he'd fatally compressed her chest and neck.
00:37:40
She'd been found
strangled by a cable that had Belorusov's DNA on it. The evidence against
him was compelling.
00:37:49
[pensive music] Six months after
Laureline's murder, Belorusov was brought
before the old Bailey.
00:38:00
- Laureline's family
came over from France, and they listened to the
evidence at trial every day.
00:38:07
- It's an incredibly
emotional and difficult place to be when you
are hearing everything
00:38:13
that's happened to
your, to your loved one. And then you come face
to face with the person
00:38:20
that is being
prosecuted for doing it. Belorusov. And he stays with you
forever because one,
00:38:28
he's got those eyes
that just look so evil. And he was so smug and so
confident about everything.
00:38:37
- [Richard] The
prosecution outlined the case against Belorusov. In court we heard that in
the lead up to her murder,
00:38:45
Laureline had been begging
him for the thousands and thousands of pounds
that he owed her.
00:38:50
And he kept promising
to pay it back. - She's in debt with the
rent and she's got no food.
00:38:57
She sends him a text. There's nothing for the
dogs. There's nothing for me.
00:39:01
And so when he
sells her this line that he's actually got her
this lovely house to move into,
00:39:07
and it'll all be wonderful. Well, of course
this is offering her a way out of this situation.
00:39:16
- He told lies
and lies and lies. So he essentially tricked
her to coming to her home.
00:39:22
And really his plan
was to kill her so she wouldn't expose
him as the fraud he was.
00:39:31
- [Richard] The court also
heard how the possessive ex-boyfriend stopped Laureline
00:39:36
from starting new relationships. - That was a big
thing for Belorusov because she was a
source of money for him.
00:39:45
And it sounds, it's
really callous, isn't it, when you think
that but you know,
00:39:49
he wanted her because she
had given him thousands of pounds over the years, and if he lost that
funding stream,
00:39:56
then he would struggle to
find money from anywhere else. He didn't want her to go,
00:40:01
he didn't want her to
be with anyone else, and he didn't want her to
move forward without him.
00:40:06
- And the minute she's
ready to start again is the worst point in time. If you're going to
leave a narcissist,
00:40:14
a psychopath, where domestic
violence is a feature, that is when they
will pull you back,
00:40:20
and that's when you are
at your most vulnerable. She would not come
out of that alive.
00:40:29
- [Richard] Next, the
defense was heard. Belorusov himself decided
to take the stand.
00:40:36
- Everyone wants to know
what he's gonna say. And if he speaks in a, in
basic form that well, I,
00:40:42
I left her, she was fine, and somebody else must
have done it. It wasn't me.
00:40:47
- Belorusov came across
as a very arrogant, cocky individual, and his interactions with the
jurors gave the impression
00:40:59
he really thought that
they believe his lies, and he could get away with this. - When Belorusov gave evidence,
00:41:05
all these things
were put to him. Like, you, you don't have
cancer. We can't find it.
00:41:09
Yeah, I do. Prove it. Can't. You know, you're
not a stunt man. I am, you're not.
00:41:17
Prove it. It was really unnerving to
see how, what, how he behaved, because he just gave
lie after lie after lie
00:41:26
about all the evidence
that we presented. And of course, when it
was so factually correct,
00:41:31
he just says, well, he's
trying to fit me up. It's your, it's an easy get out.
00:41:37
- [Richard] The text
Belorusov sent Laureline asking for nude pictures
were also read out in court.
00:41:43
- Even in court he
was actually laughing at some of the messages
that he'd sent her,
00:41:49
which is just horrible. He was fooling himself you know, all this laughter was so
nasty and inappropriate
00:42:00
and you have the
victim's family there, which it must have been
terrible for them to hear this,
00:42:05
you know, but he
didn't care, you know, it was all about him and
making himself look good.
00:42:12
And I think he really enjoyed
the attention that he got. - And when he was
talking about things,
00:42:17
or when he would leave the
box after giving evidence, he would walk past the
family or just nod and smile,
00:42:24
and, you know, all
those sort of things as though he was a,
their best friend. - [Richard] But the real
Belorusov revealed himself
00:42:32
to the judge and jury. - He blames the victim of
course, he blames Laureline. - That coercive,
controlling, bullying,
00:42:43
manipulative personality
came out in that trial when he talked about her. You know, she needed
to sort herself out.
00:42:50
She needed to lose weight. He continued with all of
his lies, even to the point where I think at the
end the judge said,
00:42:55
"you even believe
your own lies." - But the prosecution
had to show Laureline's
00:43:02
killing was a deliberate act. Her body would reveal the proof. The coroner concluded
that it took four minutes
00:43:12
for Laureline to die. It was a very long four minutes
of deliberate compression of her neck and chest.
00:43:21
Compression that caused
collapse and convulsions, and finally starved
her brain of oxygen.
00:43:29
So this was not an accident. It simply took far too
long for her to die for that ever to be the case.
00:43:38
- This wouldn't have been a
panicked moment for Belorusov. It wasn't a a, a spur
of the moment's attack.
00:43:47
- It's not an argument
that's gone wrong, and he's just snapped
and strangled her.
00:43:50
That this is, methodical. - Four minutes, that's
240 seconds. Imagine that? That somebody's twisting a
ligature around her neck.
00:44:04
This person that he's lived with and been in a relationship
with for 10 years,
00:44:09
and he's coldly strangling her, and she must have
been looking at him. It must have been
terrifying for her.
00:44:17
And he didn't have a scrap
of mercy, not a scrap. But the fact that he
could keep doing it
00:44:24
tells you everything you
need to know about him. This is an extremely
dangerous man.
00:44:36
- Belorusov showed
absolutely no remorse throughout the trial. And when he was
finally found guilty,
00:44:42
after the jury deliberated
for less than two hours, he even looked at
Laureline's family,
00:44:48
smiled and nodded at them
as her mother was sobbing. - [Richard] Kirill Belorusov
was sentenced to life
00:44:59
for a minimum of 24 years. - This, this case is one
that sticks in the memory for many reasons, not least
the tragedy of the victim.
00:45:13
Laureline had so much promise, so, so much life ahead of her. It was an absolute tragedy
00:45:19
that this man took
it all from her. - There are so many red flags
around the kind of person
00:45:25
that he was within
that relationship. Belorusov suffocated
her with his coercive
00:45:30
and controlling behavior and
how abusive he was to her. There's a legacy behind this
that everybody can learn from.
00:45:36
You know, to see
somebody like that, and identify somebody
who displays this
kind of personality,
00:45:41
you know, you need to stop
and you need to intervene. - Clearly, this man, in my
opinion, is a psychopath.
00:45:52
He's a danger
particularly to women. And I have no doubt if
he'd have gone free,
00:45:58
he would've murdered again. - Laureline believed
that her ex-partner, Kirill Belorusov had come
to help her move house.
00:46:09
She couldn't have known
that he had in fact come to kill her. But bodies never lie.
00:46:15
And the truth was that Laureline
had been brutally strangled by the man she had
loved and trusted.
00:46:23
But the evidence was
enough to convict him, and to bring justice for
Laureline and for her family.
00:46:31
[dramatic music]