MIllionaire architect Michael Morton murdered his wife and disposed of her body in such a way that it has never been found, the Old Bailey was told yesterday

Gracia Morton, 40, was last seen seven years ago going to Morton's home in St Ann's Road, Notting Hill, London, after dropping their four-year-old daughter at school.

"He was the last person to see her alive. Gracia Morton has not been seen since and her body has never been recovered," said Brian Altman, prosecuting.

"The extensive police investigation into her disappearance has established that to all intents and purposes Gracia Morton's life ended that Wednesday morning."

Morton, 66, known as Jo, denies murdering his violinist wife in November 1997, a few weeks before she was due to divorce him.

The couple had a holiday home in Stonesfield, near Woodstock.

Mr Altman said Mrs Morton had left her husband in February 1997, taking their daughter with her to settle in a flat in Kensington.

Mr Altman added: "You will hear evidence of the defendant's relationship with his wife, including his despair at her leaving him and his desire to avoid divorce.

Morton denied having anything to do with her disappearance.

"His case is that if Gracia Morton is dead, he is not responsible for it," added Mr Altman. "Gracia is clearly dead. Not only is she dead, but she was killed by this defendant.

"Her disappearance was entirely out of character. She left behind her daughter to whom she was utterly devoted, her family to whom she was extremely close, and her future life, for which she was busily planning."

Mrs Morton's bank accounts had remained untouched and she had not made contact with her close family or her "beloved daughter".

Mrs Morton, who had been a semi-professional violinist in her native Argentina, came to Britain in 1985 and married divorced Morton in 1987 at the Chelsea Register Office. But the marriage had been "beset with difficulties" and she left the family home with her daughter in February 1997.

Mr Altman said: "The defendant was devastated by Garcia's departure. He even contemplated suicide. Indeed, he left a series of notes with a friend in the summer of 1997."

Morton had other girlfriends and witnesses recalled him saying at various times that he could "never let the women in his life go".

Morton had complained that Mrs Morton, who had no apparent wealth of her own, was "stealing his money and that was the only reason she had married him".

An investment portfolio was opened in her name by Morton, but he claimed up to £480,000 in it was in dispute.

The trial continues.