OFFICE GIRL CUT LOVE RIVAL’S HEAD OFF

A ROUTINE dispute between two female office workers led to one murdering the other with a wine bottle and then sawing her head off, a court heard.

The grisly case involves married motherof-two Sophie Masala, 55, and the late Maryline Planche, who was 52 and single.

The pair were civil servants who managed funds for the disabled, but Masala developed such an ‘obsessional hatred’ for her colleague that she ended up killing her.

After using a full wine bottle to bludgeon Ms Planche to death in her own home, Masala returned a week later with a saw to slice her head off.

She then buried the head in a communal garden next to Ms Planche’s block of flats, after digging a hole using a soup spoon.

The rest of the body was chopped into parts, placed into five bags and wheeled away in a supermarket trolley before being dumped in the Canal du Midi.

The killing only came to light when one of the bags containing body parts was found in the canal by a passer-by.

Witnesses have claimed that Masala was talkative and disruptive in the office, while the partially sighted Ms Planche was a much-respected member of staff at the Association for the Management of Funds for the Integration of the Disabled.

Masala has admitted that she had been exasperated at the way Ms Planche used to take work home with her and went round to her flat ‘to complain’.

The court in Toulouse, south-west France, heard Masala plead self-defence after claiming she panicked and lashed out.

Masala has a previous conviction for theft, and in 2012 worked as a prostitute, with the compliance of her husband, the court heard.

The trial continues.