Killer husband who murdered pregnant wife sentenced to 3 more years after asking son to dig up body

A KILLER who plotted to cover up his wife’s murder by asking their son to dig up her body got three more years in jail yesterday.

Cheating Andrew Griggs killed pregnant Debbie, 34, in May 1999 and hid her body in a sealed water butt under their garden shed for 23 years.

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He was convicted of her murder in 2019 despite the absence of a body.

But he later tried to enlist the help of 25-year-old son Jake to unearth her remains in an attempt to clear his name.

During a prison visit he told Jake he had found the body in their garden in Bournemouth and suggested Griggs’ late father might have killed her.

He tried to persuade Jake to cut off a lock of her hair, then travel to France to post it back to UK authorities with a note purporting to be from her claiming that she was alive and wanted to be left alone.

Jake, who always believed in his father’s innocence, told his girlfriend about the request and she persuaded him to tell police.

It led to Debbie’s body being found in October 2022.

Experts believe she was either strangled or suffocated.

At Canterbury crown court yesterday, Griggs, now 68, was jailed for a further three years after he admitted perverting the course of justice.

It is on top of his 20-year minimum tariff for Debbie’s murder.

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