THE missing murder weapon used to bludgeon Rui Li to death may have been a bottle of Champagne.

Police have never recovered the object used by garage owner Pierre Legris to kill his secret wife.

However, this afternoon the judge said that a full bottle of wine or Champagne could have been used in the murder.

The Honourable Mr Justice Dingemans said: “The evidence shows that a heavy metal tool or a heavy full bottle of wine or Champagne would have been required to be used.

“I have no doubt, from the comparative absence of any forensic evidence, that there was a heavy considerable degree of pre-planning and preparation.”

Pierre Legris was arrested just hours after he reported his dead wife missing on Tuesday, May 27 – and four days after he murdered her at their home in Burnham Drive on Friday, May 23.

Police suspect he laid a plastic sheet on the floor of their home before bludgeoning her over the head with a weapon that was never recovered.

It was revealed during the trial that Ms Li had wounds on her arms, sustained as she tried desperately to protect herself.

Officers speculated that he had planned to bury her under the floor of the home they were renovating together after he was seen purchasing bags of cement.

The cruel 61-year-old then told a series of lies, including texting Ms Li’s daughter Lu Yao to suggest her mother had gone back to China.

Repeatedly referring to Ms Li’s body as “it” during the course of the trial, Pierre Legris – also known as Alain Baron, the name of a cousin from France who disappeared, never to be seen again, in 1978 – admitted he married his second wife at a secret ceremony in 2007.

And the two lived a private life as ‘Peter’ and ‘Lisa’, joining swinging site fabswingers.com and attending wild parties with other couples.

They also provided ‘four-handed’ massages for men in their second home in Wolverton Road, with Pierre Legris rubbing clients’ backs as they had sex with Ms Li. Shortly before Ms Li’s death, prosecutor Nigel Lickley QC told how Pierre Legris had encountered financial difficulties with both of his wives which may have been a ‘pressure point’ for the crime.

The mechanic, who owned Cromer Motors in St Clement’s Road with his first wife and son, claimed he had only married “insecure” Ms Li because she wanted to remain in the UK.

But his relationship with his first wife – to whom he referred as “Mrs Smith” – was nobody’s business because he had his “own life”, he insisted.

Smith lied to police to cover Legris’ tracks after his arrest, even as she confirmed that he had been adulterous towards her during their marriage.

The 66-year-old laundered his clothes and hid them at a storage facility – telling police she had done so because she wanted nothing of her philandering ex’s in her house.

She also attempted to foil the police investigation into her husband by claiming he had been with her on the Friday that he murdered his wife, but she was found out after she revealed they had watched a Bear Grylls programme police later discovered was shown on Saturday nights.

The couple’s only son Jonathan, once a promising Formula 3 driver, also had a part to play.

Despite the fact that 44-year-old Ms Li had supported him at races, even seeking financial backing for his career on a trip to Shanghai, he drove a Fiat Punto to his old address of Verwood Crescent before dumping it – knowing Ms Li’s body was in the boot.