The family of a pregnant mum murdered by her husband and buried in his garden have questioned why her son has not faced criminal charges - despite knowing where her remains were hidden for almost three years.

Andrew Griggs, now 62, is already serving a life sentence for killing his wife, Debbie Griggs, in 1999 and moving her body to the Dorset home he relocated to two years later.

He had managed to evade justice for 20 years, only being convicted in 2019 - and despite Debbie’s remains having not been found at the time of his trial.

It later emerged that during a prison visit the same year, he told one of his three sons, Jake Griggs, where his mum was buried in an attempt to convince him to fabricate proof she was still alive.

Jake - who along with his brothers always believed Debbie was alive - was asked to dig up his mother’s remains from beneath a shed at the family home in St Leonards, cut off a lock of her hair and post it back to the UK from France with a forged letter.

Yet it was not until October 2022 that he finally told police of his mum’s whereabouts - and only then was her body recovered.

Today, Andrew Griggs was handed an additional three-year prison sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice, but Debbie’s family believe Jake should have also faced charges himself.

Outside Canterbury Crown Court, her brother Derek Cameron said: “The question is, why did he conceal the vital information, evidence that Debbie had been murdered and buried in the family garden by Andrew Griggs? He needs to be held accountable and taken to task.

“He knew in November 2019, yet said nothing until October 2022.”

The family’s anger has been compounded by the fact both of Debbie's parents died without knowing the full truth - her mother in January 2019, before Andrew Griggs’s murder trial, and her father in January 2021, before her body was recovered and laid to rest.

“With what Jake knew, when he knew, and kept quiet for as long as he did, it is incomprehensible how he is not facing some form of judicial procedure,” Mr Cameron said.

“The system is a farce - a total joke.”

In powerful victim impact statements read in court, Debbie’s siblings described their ongoing torment - not only from the years of deception by Griggs, but the involvement of his son in not disclosing where her body was earlier.

Wayne Cameron, one of her three brothers, said it was a mixture of “relief and disbelief” when she was discovered.

“Disbelief in that we couldn't believe the lengths Griggs went to to conceal her body but relief that we could finally lay her body to rest and that she hadn't been dumped in the sea,” he added.

“We then had to endure further pain and stress on learning of how her body had been found and the other deceit practised by Griggs and his son at keeping this from us.

“The fact [Jake] kept hold of the information for so long has added to our pain.”

He added that even now, they still do not know what really happened to Debbie on the night she died.

“The least [Griggs] could do now is come clean and tell us what happened so we can finally have some sort of closure,” he said.

Debbie’s sister Wendie Rowlinson told the court the years of not knowing her sister’s fate had caused lasting trauma and physical illness.

“I’ve had regular nightmares imagining Debbie’s body and that of her unborn child squished inside a tiny barrel for all that time,” she wrote.

She said the stress had left her in poor health and caused family rifts that may never be repaired: “This ongoing nightmare has left our family divided at times and we have never been quite the same since she went missing as she was the glue that held us together.”

The court was also told there was criticism that Jake, knowing what his father had asked him to do in 2019, took his mum's share of inheritance when her father - his grandfather - died in January 2021.

In a statement delivered outside court, Derek Cameron addressed both men directly.

“We say to Andrew Griggs, how very dare you murder our sister and then try to embroil your own son into a pathetic attempt to give yourself an alibi. You are indeed an awful excuse for a human being,” he said.

To Jake we say how very insensitive you are in not only covering for your father and denying your grandfather the opportunity to bury his daughter - your mother, our sister – yet still taking his money from his estate.”

Kent Police was asked about the decision not to pursue any charges against Jake Griggs.

A spokesperson said: “All of the information and evidence available was carefully considered in respect of the individual who provided information about the location of Debbie’s body, and as a result of that evidential review a decision was made to treat them as a significant witness.”