A man has been convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend after falsely claiming he had cancer to extort money from her.
Kirill Belorusov strangled Laureline Garcia-Bertaux, a 34-year-old French film producer, to death before burying her body in her London garden in March.
The Old Bailey heard he then used her phone to send fictitious texts to her friends and fled to his home country of Estonia.
Belorusov, 32, was brought back to the UK under a European Arrest Warrant and charged with murder.
He denied killing Ms Garcia-Bertaux but a jury found him guilty after deliberating for less than two hours on Monday.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, told the court: “I’m entirely satisfied the defendant is not someone who believes the lies he tells. He just tells them on a scale and magnitude which I have not encountered before. I do not believe he has ever had cancer. I’m entirely sure of that.”
The court heard Belorusov worked in bars and nightclubs but claimed to have been a stuntman and a casino bodyguard.
He said he worked on Brad Pitt film World War Z but the online Imdb film database listing, which included 148 people under the heading “stunts”, did not feature his name.
Belorusov met Ms Garcia-Bertaux in 2009, but the couple split in 2017, after she complained he was a “slob” and would “needle her about her weight”.
He owed her thousands of pounds and made constant excuses to avoid repaying her, even falsely claiming he was dying of cancer and undergoing treatment.
In November last year Ms Garcia-Bertaux begged him to give her the money in a text message saying she was struggling to pay her rent, or buy food for herself and her pet dogs.
In March, Belorusov travelled to London after falsely claiming he had found Ms Garcia-Bertaux a cheaper new home and would help her move.
Belorusov, who had also been seeing another woman in London, refused to give Ms Garcia-Bertaux details of the property and told her he had booked a removal van. There was no home and no van.
Prosecutors said he then “calmly and methodically” carried out the murder on 2 March, before going shopping for items needed to dispose of the body.
Oliver Glasgow QC said: “The last few minutes of Ms Garcia-Bertaux’s life must have been truly terrifying as this defendant squeezed the very life out of her and as she struggled for her final breath, there must have been a moment of terrible clarity when she realised that the man she cared for was a liar, a cheat and a killer.”
Her body was found naked, bound and wrapped in bin bags in a flower bed in her garden in Kew, a day after friends reported her missing on 5 March.
Belorusov then sent text messages from Ms Garcia-Bertaux’s phone to her friends and family saying she was planning breast surgery and expressing her delight at her new fictitious home.
One message said: “Kirill gave me another £7,000 so I’m going on a shopping spree … he transferred another £10,000 a week ago … and he left.”
Belorusov also sent messages to himself to continue the deception, and used Google Translate to reply to her brother in French.
Olcay Sapanoglu, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was a chain of deceit by Belorusov at every possible stage: from the cancer treatment he was not having, to the promises of repayment he could not deliver on, to the new home that did not exist and even a fictional estate agent – yet another feature of Belorusov’s treachery.”
He fled to Estonia, while Ms Garcia-Bertaux was reported missing after she failed to turn up to work at PR firm Golin, where she was an executive assistant.
Her best friend travelled to her flat to check on her on 4 March and called police after she observed her dogs acting “unusually subdued”.
Police broke in the back door to find the victim’s belongings packed, ready to move, and uncovered her body after spotting loose soil in the garden.
Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding, who led the investigation, said: “I cannot imagine what thoughts were going through Laureline’s mind when the man she trusted, who had promised to help her move to a beautiful new home after months of worry over her housing situation, turned instead into a killer who took away her life.
“He compounded her family’s misery by lying about his movements and pretending to share their fear and concern over her mysterious disappearance – while all the time he knew exactly what had become of her.”
Ms Garcia-Bertaux also worked as a producer in the TV and film industry and had worked with Dame Joan Collins on the 2018 short film Gerry.
The actress said she was “shocked by the horrifying news” after hearing of Ms Garcia-Bertaux’s death.
Her mother, Frederique Bertaux, said losing her daughter was a “constant pain that nothing can relieve”.
“There is not a moment during the day I don’t think of my Laureline,” said a statement read to the court. “I can’t touch her, I can’t kiss her anymore. I watch videos of her just to hear her voice, hear her laugh, to see how she moves.
“I would give anything to hear her happy moments, sad moments, and to hear her say ‘mum I love you’. It’s incredibly hard to begin to describe my sorrow, my heartbreak.”
Belorusov will be sentenced on Friday.
Additional reporting by PA
