Alice Gross suspect Arnis Zalkalns 'had no bad core', girlfriend says

If Zalkalns had lived, he would have been charged with the murder of schoolgirl Alice Gross

The man suspected of killing schoolgirl Alice Gross had no "bad core", his girlfriend has told an inquest.

Arnis Zalkalns, 41, would have been charged with Alice's murder had he lived, police said.

But his girlfriend, Katerina Laiblova, told an inquest she was struggling to accept that he was involved in the 14-year-old's death.

Latvian Zalkalns, who was found hanged in a west London park, took his own life, coroner Chinyere Inyama ruled.

His corpse was discovered last October, days after the missing teen's body was dredged from the Grand Union Canal in Ealing.

In a statement read to West London Coroner's Court, Katerina Laiblova, who had a daughter with Zalkalns, said: "I'm having great difficulty accepting he had anything to do with her [Alice's] disappearance or her murder."

"I cannot think of any motive he had. I can only think if he was involved in an accident.

"He doesn't have a bad core," she continued.

Arnis Zalklans is photographed pointing to where he buried his wife Rudite

Ms Laiblova said Alice had resembled Zalkalns' ex-partner. "I saw a photograph of Alice and she looked a bit like his ex-partner in that she's very thin."

She said he had never been violent towards her and made her breakfast the last time he was with her on 3 September 2014.

Det Sgt Michael Hartley told the court there was strong evidence to implicate Zalkalns in Alice's murder and DNA evidence suggested the attack may have been sexually motivated.

"The abduction and subsequent murder of Alice could have [been] a completely random, opportunistic attack formulated by Zalkalns when he passed Alice on that day," he said.

Prior to moving to the UK, Zalkalns had served seven years in prison for bludgeoning and stabbing to death his former wife Rudite in 1998.

He is believed to have moved to the UK in 2007, although the British authorities appeared to have been unaware of the murder conviction.

He was working as a labourer on a building site in Isleworth at the time 14-year-old Alice went missing and CCTV footage showed him riding a bicycle along the canal tow path behind Alice on 28 August.

No family members for either Alice or Zalkalns attended the inquest hearing.