As proceedings began, the accused’s lawyer told the court that his client would not be making any comment. According to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the suspect sat unmoved throughout the day.

The man, named in German media only as Andy H., is accused of killing 28-year-old Dorena Weber, and cramming her body into a cupboard which he wrapped in plastic and left in her Bavaria flat.

“He is suspected of killing her because of an array of circumstantial evidence, including a fingerprint on the plastic wrapped around the cupboard,” a spokesman for the Traunstein state prosecutor told The Local.

The woman was last seen some time between October 15 and 17, 2010, he said, and is thought to have been killed shortly after that.

The regional Münchner Merkur paper said police think he strangled her in her flat.

Her body was not discovered until August 2011 – and was so badly decomposed that no certain cause of death could be determined, the paper said.

Neighbours had previously complained about the smell and noise coming from two dogs which were left in the flat – and they were removed in November 2010. But no-one realised that Dorena was missing.

No-one even reported her missing, and it was only when her landlord took steps to evict her due to non-payment of rent that her body was found, the prosecutor spokesman said.

It was only then that her body was found, stuffed into a cupboard of the kind often mounted on kitchen walls. “It was on the floor, and wrapped in plastic,” he said.

The Local/hc