I ‘emotionally waterboarded’ ex-lover... but I didn’t kill her
Stuntman accused of producer’s murder tells court:
A STUNTMAN accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend and burying her in a flowerbed admitted yesterday that he was a ‘monster’ who had emotionally ‘waterboarded’ her for a year.
Kirill Belorusov, 32, allegedly throttled French film producer Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, 34, and dumped her body in a shallow grave before fleeing to his native Estonia.
Yesterday he admitted he had lied to his former girlfriend by claiming he was dying of cancer because he wanted to ‘hurt’ her. Belorusov told the Old Bailey he had taunted Miss GarciaBertaux and pestered her for naked selfies, but says he didn’t kill her.
Miss Garcia-Bertaux’s body was found in the garden of her £400,000 groundfloor flat in the wealthy suburb of Kew, south-west London, a day after she was reported missing on March 5.
Belorusov was extradited from the Estonian capital of Tallinn two weeks later and charged with murder. He is accused of killing her after she asked him to repay substantial debts.
Yesterday the court heard details about his ‘cruel’ treatment of Miss Garcia-Bertaux during their eight-year relationship. Oliver Glasgow, QC, prosecuting, asked Belorusov, who is the son of a police officer: ‘Why tell people who care about you all these lies about your cancer treatment?’
The defendant replied: ‘Probably because I’m cruel or mean or maybe I wanted to hurt her.’
Belorusov had previously pestered his ex-girlfriend for ‘ nude’ photographs, despite calling her ‘fat’ and dating another woman at the time, jurors heard.
Yesterday he laughed as texts to the victim were read out in the court, including one which said: ‘Will it be possible for some nudies to keep me motivated and happy until Friday?
‘I wanna see all of you, please be kinky. Me want booby and you naked and pretty. I miss your soft curvy self.’
When asked why he sent the messages, Belorusov said: ‘I was just trying to poke and wind her up. I was asking her for something I thought would annoy her.’
He added: ‘In the first year of our relationship [I got] about 50GB (gigabytes) of nudies and sex tapes – I didn’t need anything extra.’
Mr Glasgow asked: ‘There are lots of messages calling her beautiful. Why would you say that about someone you had no romantic interest in?’ Belorusov replied: ‘Did you want me to be honest and call her overweight and fat?
‘I started 50 diets with her, I decided to jog with her, run with her, go to the gym with her.
‘She gained 25kg (55lbs) and her friends were telling her how full of life she is. No, she wasn’t. She was stress eating and none of her friends were telling her that that was a problem.’
When Belorusov said he had been emotionally ‘waterboarding’ the victim for more than a year, Mr Glasgow said: ‘Waterboarding is a technique of torture, isn’t it? What does it mean to you?’ The defendant replied: ‘Just mental nagging, I guess.
‘I don’t think she’s in a position to argue or be unhappy because I gave her money.’
Mr Glasgow said: ‘[Laureline] believed you were going to come and see at Christmas, didn’t she? But you were in Estonia.’
Belorusov replied: ‘Absolutely. I’m a monster.’
Phone tracking data located Belorusov at the victim’s house on March 3, the day of the murder. The defendant claims he had arranged to celebrate his 32nd birthday with his new girlfriend, but he felt too ‘lazy’ to travel to her Kilburn flat.
Instead, he said, he sat on a park bench at the end of Miss Garcia-Bertaux’s street eating pork scratchings and drinking beer until 7.30am the next day.
He said he visited her flat because he was ‘curious’.
Belorusov told jurors: ‘I went back to Laureline’s place just to
‘It was just mental nagging’ ‘I’m a monster’
see how she’s doing. I guess I was curious about the progress on what was happening inside because I left in a hurry.
‘I was at her doorstep maybe five, six, seven, times that day.
‘I can’t really give you a direct answer [ why]. I just didn’t wanna leave.’
Martin Rutherford QC, defending, asked Belorusov: ‘Did you kill Miss Garcia-Bertaux?’
He replied: ‘Absolutely not. I have never raised a hand, never raised a finger to that girl in my life. I left and never re-entered the property [on March 3].
‘I was on the doorstep many times but I have never reentered the property.’
The trial continues.