A “devious and conniving” killer who murdered his wife, buried her body in his back garden and then 20 years later asked his son to fake proof she was still alive has been sentenced to a further three years behind bars.

Andrew Griggs is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years after being found guilty of killing pregnant mum-of-three Debbie Griggs in October 2019 - two decades after he had reported her missing from the family home in Cross Road, Deal.

But having disappeared in May 1999, it was not until late 2022 that Debbie’s remains were eventually uncovered when police, acting on “fresh information”, found her buried in the back garden of a house in Dorset that Griggs had moved to two years after he had killed her, taking the corpse with him.

Canterbury Crown Court heard today that her whereabouts only came to light when the couple’s son, Jake Griggs, went to police and revealed that as long ago as November 2019 he had been asked by his dad during a prison visit to dig up her body, remove part of her hair and then travel to another country to send the lock, together with a letter professing to be from Debbie, back to the UK.

For reasons not divulged in court, Jake did not immediately alert police – much to the dismay of Debbie’s family – but once he had, officers dug beneath a concrete base at the property in St Leonards and discovered a sealed, barrel-shaped container hidden under a shed.

Inside was Debbie’s body, along with men’s and women’s clothes, bedding, and the lining of a car boot.

The container had been wrapped in blue tarpaulin and fibreglass - steps taken, pathologists believe, shortly after her death.

Among the items buried with Debbie were clothes matching those Griggs admitted wearing on the night she vanished.

A white T-shirt and grey jogging bottoms - described by Griggs in his original 1999 police statement - were recovered from inside the container, along with a duvet seen in old family photos taken in the couple’s bedroom.

Police also found the boot liner of Debbie’s Peugeot 309 inside the barrel - an exact match for one missing from her vehicle, which had been abandoned a mile from the family’s Deal home and was found to contain a trace of her blood.

When re-interviewed by police about the discovery, Griggs refused to answer any questions, instead offering a pre-written statement in which he bizarrely claimed to have found a container with a body inside in someone else’s garden two years after reporting Debbie missing.

He said he assumed it was her, panicked, and sealed it in fibreglass before “someone else” buried it, denying knowledge of where it had ended up, despite giving Jake precise instructions years later.

But in March this year, he admitted asking his son to carry out the heinous deed by pleading guilty to perverting the course of public justice.

At the sentencing hearing - held at the same court where Griggs was convicted and jailed for life - statements written by Debbie’s family spoke not only of the “constant torture” they continue to endure by the murderer’s silence on the circumstances of the killing but also of the family rift that had developed over so many years.

Her sister, Wendie Rowlinson, told the court: “This evil monster still refuses to tell us what happened on that terrible day in May 1999.

“This deprives us all of the closure we so desperately seek after all these agonising years of torment.”

Griggs, now aged 62 and wheelchair-bound due to a spinal condition, appeared in court via a video link from HMP Isle of Wight.

Opening the facts of how Debbie’s remains came to be found, and how it was now known Griggs had “stored” her body, prosecutor Lyndon Harris said: “Jake Griggs, the son of Debbie and the defendant, was in frequent contact with the defendant after his conviction.

“During a visit in November 2019 the defendant told Jake that her body was located under the patio of his, the defendant’s address.

“That was an address he moved to in July 2001, some 26 months after the murder.

“It’s not known what had happened to the body in those 26 months, where it had been stored or how it had been stored.

“But it follows he had stored the body somewhere before moving it to that location in July 2001.

“Shortly after moving into the property, a concrete foundation and a shed was erected on top of that location where the body was subsequently found.”

Jake contacted police in October 2022 “and informed them of this information and crucially that the defendant had asked Jake to recover the body, cut some hair from the body and write a letter purporting to be his mother Debbie and send it with that lock of her from a location abroad to indicate that Debbie was still alive”, the prosecutor continued.

“It was obvious that the purpose of this was to undermine the safety of his murder conviction.

“In due course, the body was recovered in a barrel-shaped container which had been sealed with fibreglass and pathological analysis showed this had been done soon after the death, such was the state of preservation of the body.

“It was buried in a pit under a concrete foundation and on top of which was a shed. In the barrel, in addition to Debbie’s body, were clothes that it is understood the defendant was wearing on the evening of Debbie’s disappearance.”

A charge of obstructing a coroner in the execution of their duty by burying his wife’s body in an unknown place, preventing an inquest into her death from being held, was left to lie on file.

Passing sentence, Judge Simon James told Griggs his actions were “quite extraordinary”, designed to “get away with murder”, and aggravated by the recruitment of his son.

“As far as efforts to pervert the course of justice are concerned, this is about as desperate and serious an offence of its type could possibly be,” he said.

“It illustrates just how conniving, devious and narcissistic you are and demonstrates the lengths you are prepared to go to in an effort to avoid responsibility for killing your wife.

“Despite your guilty plea I find myself unable to detect any genuine remorse.”

Explaining the need to impose a consecutive sentence, meaning Griggs will now have to wait longer to apply for parole, the judge continued: “In my judgment this is one of those rare cases where justice demands the imposition of a determinate term of imprisonment to be served after you have served the minimum term of your present sentence.

“This was sustained, sophisticated and planned course of conduct and the underlying offence could not have been much more serious.”

Griggs remained stony-faced throughout the hearing and when sentence was passed.

Judge James said the serious distress caused by the offence and its capacity to have a serious impact on the administration of justice was “obvious and apparent.”

Nick Beechey, defending Griggs, had told the court that the main mitigation was his “timely” guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.

“It spares his son, other children and Debbie Griggs’s family any further anguish and distress which a trial would have occasioned them,” he said.

“He regrets his son Jake found himself in the situation that he did.”

Kent Police say Griggs’ lies and manipulation continued long after he murdered Debbie, highlighting the cruelty of involving his own child in an elaborate plan to falsely prove she was still alive.

DCI Neil Kimber said: “Debbie Griggs was a devoted mother whose love for her three children was never in doubt, and it is inconceivable that she would have ever walked out on them.

“Her husband Andrew has known this ever since he first reported her missing, by which point he had already brutally murdered Debbie and hidden her body.

“He then continued to lie and manipulate others even after her remains were eventually discovered, making up further ridiculous stories that are an insult to Debbie’s memory and to everyone who continues to mourn her loss.

“The fact he asked a family member to dig up her remains shows what a callous and selfish person he is, sparing little to no thought as to the deeply devastating effect such an act would likely have on that person.

“Andrew Griggs is already serving a life sentence for Debbie’s murder but our investigation into these further offences was about more than achieving another positive court outcome.

“It was about securing justice for Debbie and her family and friends, and ensuring the general public know exactly the lengths Griggs was willing to go to in order to escape the consequences of his disgusting actions.

“I hope Debbie’s family and friends can take some comfort from the outcome of this case, which is testament to the hard work and determination of Kent Police’s cold case detectives and everyone who has worked on this case over many years.”