Ben Lacomba could have dug a grave in advance of killing his former partner Sarah Wellgreen, claimed a prosecutor.

The 39-year-old cab driver denies murdering his ex and burying her in the countryside around their New Ash Green home last October.

At Woolwich Crown Court today prosecutor Alison Morgan repeatedly called on the 39-year-old taxi driver to tell the court where Sarah’s body was.

Ignoring Lacomba’s previous assertions he had nothing to do with the disappearance of Sarah on the night of October 9-10 last year, Ms Morgan began questioning the dad of three about Sarah’s whereabouts.

“Did you dig Sarah’s grave before night of the 9th and 10th of October?” she asked.

“I did not,” replied Lacomba.

“You’ve heard Sergeant Law give evidence,” she added, explaining how the perimeter of the police search area for Sarah’s body was based on the fact Lacomba’s car was seen on CCTV returning towards New Ash Green two hours after it left the area on the night Sarah disappeared, and the time it takes to dig a grave, being an hour and a half.

“You’ve only got a quarter of an hour to get somewhere, an hour and half to dig a grave and a quarter of an hour to get back,” she added. “So did you dig that grave before that day?

“If you did then you would have had far longer to get far further, far beyond the area PS Laws and his team have been searching.

“So do you want to help us now? Where is it? Where is the grave?”

Lacomba replied, facing the jury: “What you have seen and heard doesn’t look good for me. I want to let the jury know, as well as this court I have not murdered the mother of my children.”

And he added: “I’ve never used anything to dig a grave. I’ve never dug a grave in my life.”

Ms Morgan brought up the subject of the long-handled shovel, which she at one point referred to as a ‘grave-digger’s’ shovel, which Lacomba says he bought for his mother Marilyn for Christmas 2017.

“Let’s have a look at it now,” said Ms Morgan, lifting the shovel up. “Are you suggesting this was an appropriate Christmas gift for an elderly lady?

“You just feel the weight of that. Are you suggesting you picked that up in a DIY store and that was appropriate for your mother?”

The shovel was handed to Lacomba who reiterated that his mother had wanted to dig the front garden and that he thought the shovel would be a good idea as it would give her better leverage.

Ms Morgan replied: “So she got the gift of the shovel and the gift of hard labour in your garden?”

Lacomba explained his mother tried using it but decided she preferred using a hand trowel on her hands and knees.

“What a surprise,” retorted Ms Morgan. “She preferred using a trowel rather than a grave-diggers shovel.”

But she went on to dismiss the story, adding: “This is complete nonsense, Mr Lacomba.”

“Not it’s not," he replied.

Ms Morgan responded: “The reason you made that up is you don’t have an explanation as to why you have a shovel that size in your shed.”

And she noted that Lacomba’s assertion about the shovel being a gift for his mother was not mentioned in defence notes submitted before the trial, but had come to light only in court.

Accusing Lacomba of disposing of Sarah’s iPhone Ms Morgan asked him: “where did you go to get rid of it? The same place you buried Sarah or somewhere different?”

Lacomba replied: “I’ve not buried Sarah.”

Read more from the trial:

• Accused explains his troubled relationship
• 2,771 locations identified in search
• Accused 'left house' on night Sarah Wellgreen vanished
• Footage played to court of moment Ben Lacomba allegedly turned CCTV off
• Ben Lacomba was 'panicky' after ex went missing from New Ash Green home
• 'Where did you hide the body, Mr Lacomba?'

And she also picked up on the hour and a half it took Lacomba to get from New Ash Green to Greenhithe on October 14, the night he disposed of his phones in the river.

Lacomba insists he pulled over at the side of the road en route, to think things over, but Ms Morgan suggested he went elsewhere.

“Where did you go in that hour and half, please?” she asked. Lacomba said he couldn’t recall exactly which route he took but that he could have gone via Green Street Green, and that he remembered pulling over for a while.

“Do you not want to tell us where you took your car that night?” said Ms Morgan. And she added: “Mr Lacomba, did you go back to where you buried Sarah that night.”

“I haven’t buried Sarah anywhere,” he replied.

“Did you go back there to make sure everything was cleared up properly?” replied Ms Morgan.

“No,” said Lacomba, again denying he had anything to do with Sarah’s disappearance.

Lacomba was also pressed on the matter of the t-shirt found in his shed, the second time police searched it, which Ms Morgan said was a woman’s pyjama top.

He again said it was a ‘rag’, possibly a child’s top, that he might have used to clear out the guttering after he lost his job following his first arrest on October 16.

And the day of his arrest was brought up when Ms Morgan asked him why he had said nothing to the arresting officers.

“They told you you were being arrested for murder,” said Ms Morgan. “You didn’t ask a single question about that. You didn’t say for example ‘what do you mean murder, she’s just disappeared'.”

Lacomba said he had “suspicions” he was going to be arrested when his boss had told him a short time earlier that the police were after him and thought he’d killed Sarah and buried her body - and that he’d stayed silent after being read his rights and on the advice of solicitors.

Ms Morgan also asked him why he hadn’t asked police if they’d found Sarah, when they pulled up at his home on October 11, two days after she disappeared.

“The reason was, you were the one person in the whole world who knew precisely where she was,” she added.

The trial continues.

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