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| Sebastian Bendou, 36, stabbed and battered his housemate Christophe Borgye in 2009 |
A man who murdered his housemate and buried him in a tomb in their garden has finally confessed to the crime four years later, after his guilty conscience became too much bear.
Sebastian Bendou, 36, stabbed and battered his housemate Christophe Borgye in 2009 along with an accomplice in a brutal pre-planned attack after a row over money.
He then hid his body in a homemade brick tomb topped with concrete in the garden of the house in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
The pair thought they had got away with murder after police treated the victim’s disappearance as a routine missing persons inquiry and assumed he had returned to his native France.
But hotel worker Bendou could not live with the 'strain' of his guilt and in May last year suddenly travelled 200 miles from his new home in Dumfries, Scotland back to the town.
He called police from a phone box and told them: 'This is too much for my mind.'
The next day he led officers to the house where the body of airline steward Borgye still lay.
Officers broke open the tomb inside a shed to find it contained a low brick wall used to hide the corpse with three separate layers of concrete placed over the body to bury it.
A claw hammer and two knives were found next the body wrapped in a duvet and tarpaulin.
It emerged Bendou - also a Frenchman - had later claimed he was under the influence of his accomplice who convinced him Borgye was a French spy.
Bendou was found guilty of murder. His guilty plea to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility was rejected by the prosecution.
He will be sentenced later.
Father of three Dominik Kocher, 35, from New Abbey in Dumfries, Scotland, who planned the killing was found guilty at an earlier hearing and jailed for life with a minimum recommendation he serve 23 years.
Chester Crown Court was told Mr Borgye worked as a flight attendant for Ryanair and was originally from Ronchin in France but had moved to the UK in 2007 due to his job.
He initially lived in Liverpool with Bendou and another man before all three moved to Ellesmere Port where Kocher lived with his wife and children.
The men came to an arrangement where they would pay their wages into the back account of Kocher who then managed their financial affairs.
But when Mr Borgye said he planned to move to Belgium - and so the money would not be paid into Kocher’s account - he bought a number of items from builders merchants including concrete, bricks and limestone chipping, and also a set of three knives from a supermarket.
The unsuspecting victim was later lured into a specially prepared ‘kill room’ where tarpaulin had been laid on the floor and the killers wore blue plastic overshoes on their feet.
During the attack Borgye was stabbed twice and hit with the claw end of the hammer eight times with massive force. His body was dumped in the back of the shed and encased in the tomb.
The victim was reported missing to police by a work colleague in May 2009 but enquiries at the time led officers and his family to believe he had left the country.
Bendou carried on living at the house until August 2012 when he and Kocher moved to Scotland.
The new tenants were told not to go into the outbuilding as the landlord used it to store personal property.
He eventually went to police fearing Kocher was about to 'eliminate' him. In a statement he initially said he killed the victim in self defence.
He said he was 'very scared' and added: 'I’m confessing now because I felt it was too much for my mind and I want some peace.'
At the trial Bendou said he had been 'indoctrinated' by Kocher’s story that Mr Borgye was a secret agent sent by 'the Americans' to ensure his wife was deported to France where she had tax issues.
Bendou added: 'Christophe was in his bedroom and Dominik called him down. Dominik put the knife into his neck. I took the hammer and I struck him three times in the head. I was manipulated by Dominik. I was like a puppet.'
Talking of his life in Scotland he added: 'I was frightened for my life. My conscience said to me you’ve got to give yourself in now.'
Bendou was initially sectioned under the Mental Health Act but was later deemed fit to stand trial. An appeal is currently ongoing as whether Kocher’s 23 year sentence is 'too lenient.'
Det Insp Gwyn Dodd from Cheshire Police revealed forensic archeologists, entomologists, cement experts, pathologists, psychiatrists, translators and financial investigators had helped with the investigation.
He added: 'Kocher was the dominant force and had a controlling influence. He was instrumental in the cover up of the murder and leading people, including his family, into believing Christophe had simply moved away.
'But the strain of their secret in the end proved too much for Bendou.'
Richard Riley, Senior Crown Prosecutor with the CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: 'Bendou led us to the grisly tomb of Christophe Borgye and is now facing the consequences of his role in this tragedy.
'Mr Borgye, Kocher and Bendou were all friends yet Kocher seemed to exert some strange influence over the others that we have never managed to get to the bottom of.
'Borgye and Bendou had their wages paid into Kocher’s account and, in return, he seems to have managed their affairs.
'We may never know the reason why Bendou and Kocher killed Mr Borgye on that fateful day - the picture is too murky.
'But it seems likely that money was at the heart of it. Kocher bought knives in the days leading up to the killing and tarpaulin, bricks and cement. We’ve always maintained these were used in the killing and to then bury the body.
'This murder was planned, brutally executed and extensively covered up.'
Manuel Wagner, 26, also from New Abbey in Dumfries, Scotland, was found not guilty of assisting an offender and preventing a lawful burial at an earlier hearing.
Culled from DAILY MAIL
