Andrew Griggs: Killer who hid pregnant spouse’s physique beneath patio for 23 years requested son to dig up her stays | EUROtoday

A “callous” father who murdered his spouse and hid her physique beneath a patio for 23 years requested their son to dig her up and ship a hair to police in an audacious plot to clear his personal identify.

Andrew Griggs, who’s already serving a life sentence with a minimal of 20 years for killing devoted mother-of-three Debbie Griggs, has been jailed for 3 extra years after he tried to control certainly one of their sons into exhuming her physique from jail.

The former fisherman, 62, was convicted of Ms Griggs’ homicide in 2019 following a chilly case investigation into her disappearance in 1999, after she vanished whereas she was three months pregnant with their fourth baby. Her physique had by no means been discovered.

Despite sustaining his innocence, he later revealed to his son in a jail go to that her stays have been sealed in a water butt buried beneath the concrete base of a shed at his house in Dorset.

He instructed him to dig it up, take away a strand of her hair, take it overseas and submit it again to the UK with a letter pretending to be from Ms Griggs to show she was nonetheless alive.

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Specialist officers and workers excavated the again backyard of his house in St Leonards, Dorset, in October 2022.

Her physique was present in a barrel-shaped container wrapped in blue tarpaulin beneath the bottom of what had beforehand been a lean-to shed. Also inside have been garments together with a pillowcase, quilt and a boot liner matching one lacking from the mom’s Peugeot 306.

It is believed Griggs wrapped the clothes he was sporting when he killed the previous nurse within the boot liner earlier than inserting them on high of her contained in the container.

When Griggs was interviewed in regards to the discovery, he declined to reply any questions however delivered a pre-prepared assertion during which he nonetheless maintained he was not chargeable for Ms Grigg’s demise.

He claimed he discovered a physique inside a container in another person’s backyard round two years after he had reported her lacking.

He mentioned he panicked and encased the container in fibreglass earlier than another person buried it, and though he suspected it was beneath his backyard shed he didn’t know for positive.

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Griggs was charged with perverting the course of justice, which he later admitted, and obstructing a coroner within the execution of their responsibility.

In a listening to at Canterbury Crown Court on Monday he was ordered to serve an extra three years in jail.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kimber mentioned Griggs’ lies and try to recruit a member of the family to clear his personal identify are an “insult” to the mom’s reminiscence.

“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,” he mentioned.

“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.”

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Katie Samways from the Crown Prosecution Service mentioned the case was “one of the worst examples imaginable” of perverting the course of justice.

“Andrew Griggs spent decades lying to everyone around him, claiming that Debbie’s disappearance was nothing to do with him,” she added.

“Once convicted of her murder, in a desperate attempt to prove his innocence, he tried to manipulate his son into helping him in the most appalling way possible.

“Griggs deliberately failed to reveal the location of Debbie’s body, adding immeasurably to the distress of her family and friends.”

She added: “None of us can imagine the impact that Griggs’ actions have had on everyone around him.

“Now, more than 25 years after Debbie first disappeared, we hope that her family and friends can now finally put this chapter of their lives behind them, knowing Andrew Griggs has been fully held to account not just for Debbie’s murder, but also for the lies he continually told in the intervening period.”