A 42-YEAR-OLD Forest Hill woman drugged and murdered the father of her child before eventually stashing his body in a wheelie bin, the Old Bailey heard today.

Police found the remains of Shaun Corey hidden in a green bin at the Stanstead Road maisonette bedroom of his on-off girlfriend Karen Otmani on June 15 last year.

His body was so badly decomposed a proper post-mortem examination was not possible.

Mr Corey, 42, had last been seen in a shop on June 3 when, jurors heard, he was upbeat, seeming "happy and contented." But the court was told he was probably dead by the next day.

Prosecutor Bobbie Cheema said today: "In a nutshell, the prosecution say Karen Otmani drugged and killed Shaun Corey by strangling or suffocating him at her flat."

Her friend Bernard Beddoe, aged 60, of Revelon Road, Brockley, assisted with the murder, jurors heard, and helped to hide the body.

Keith Jones, who met Otmani online and eventually became her lover, told police she had talked about the possibility of killing Mr Corey in previous weeks because he wouldn't leave her alone.

On one occasion she showed Mr Jones a bag of blue liquid and asked him to test how long it would take to render someone unconscious, the court heard.

Mr Jones later told police that, on June 8, Otmani had taken him to her room and asked him whether he could smell anything before pointing to a stack of boxes covered in blankets.

Ms Cheema said: "Karen Otmani then pointed out a protruding bump on one of the boxes and said to him 'He's in there'.

"She said she'd measured her freezer but it was too small and she needed to get another freezer."

Jurors heard Otmani told Mr Jones that she had drugged Mr Corey's beer, taken him downstairs to her room and tied him to the bed.

When he started to wake up she placed a plastic bag over his head, the court was told, while Beddoe was in the room.

Ms Cheema said: "She held the bag over his head, pulling it as tight as she could until he breathed his final breath."

Mr Jones said Otmani had asked him to take the box away and bury it in his garden. He refused and eventually contacted the police who, after one failed search, eventually found the body in a bin, sealed around the top with a thick layer of adhesive.

The court heard Otmani told officers: "I killed him. He freaked me out and I killed him."

Beddoe, also arrested, would later tell a police doctor that he'd known about the body since June 4 and Mr Corey had been strangled, jurors heard.

The court was told how Otmani and the victm's relationship had been "turbulent" and that Mr Corey, who had been thrown out the flat in late 2010 and sometimes slept in his car, may have been trying to force his lover to marry him.

Ms Cheema said Otmani was not expected to dispute the killing, but would claim it was due to a loss of self-control.

Otmani, who walked out of court as the case against her opened, denies murder.

Beddoe also denies murder and assisting an offender.

The trial continues.