Now tell us what you did with her body
Taxi driver guilty of killing beautician ex-partner He could be first target of ‘Helen’s Law’ ++ Her devastated family plead...
THE former partner of Sarah Wellgreen is facing a life jail term after being convicted of her murder – and may spend longer behind bars unless he discloses the location of the beautician’s body.
Taxi driver Ben Lacomba was yesterday convicted of killing the 46-year-old mother of five after she vanished from her home in October last year.
But in what has been described as a ‘highly unusual case’, extensive searches have not located a body and no forensic evidence was uncovered.
Despite the challenging circumstances, police built a ‘compelling case’ that the only suspect was Lacomba and have vowed to continue to try to locate her body. The 39-year-old Lacomba was said to be ‘ angry, bitter and controlling’ when he hatched a ‘deliberate, planned and careful’ plot to murder his former lover.
He was aware that Mrs Wellgreen planned to buy him out of their home in the Kent village of New Ash Green after winning a custody battle over their three children.
Twice-married Mrs Wellgreen had two adult sons from a previous relationship. They offered to help her obtain a mortgage to own the property outright.
Lacomba knew he would then have limited contact with their children and so decided to kill her and bury the body in the Kent countryside, police believe. Lacomba i s thought to have drowned Mrs Wellgreen in the bath early on October 10 last year before driving her body away in his distinctive red Vauxhall Zafira taxi.
He may have dug her grave days before her murder. What was described as a 5½ft ‘gravediggers’ shovel was found in his shed.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court in London heard during a fourweek trial how Lacomba claimed to have bought the shovel as a Christmas gift for his pain-ridden mother Marilyn, 66.
Yesterday – as an emotionless Lacomba was led away – he turned to her as she blew him a kiss from the public gallery.
The jury had taken three and a half hours to reach its verdict. Lacomba may now become one of the first criminals to be subjected to the proposed ‘Helen’s Law’, named after Helen McCourt, whose killer Ian Simms refused to offer disclose the whereabouts of her body in 1988.
A Bill was brought before Parliament last week making it a legal requirement for the Parole Board to take into account a killer’s failure to disclose the location of their victim’s remains when considering them for release.
The Brexit crisis in Parliament makes the Bill’s progress uncertain but, even if fails to get Royal Assent, Parole Board guidance already says that offenders who withhold information may pose a risk to the public and could face longer in prison. Courts can also hand down tougher sentences for murderers who deliberately conceal the location of a body.
In the hunt for Mrs Wellgreen, police trawled 22,000 hours of CCTV footage seized from houses, businesses and streets within a five-mile radius of her home, as specialist teams carried out almost 2,000 searches of the area.
Lacomba tried to discredit the former bank manager by telling police in a ‘missing person’ 999 call on October 11 that she led a ‘weird life’ and was cheating on several men. He insisted he had been in bed asleep from 11pm on October 9, waking at 7am the next day to discover she had left the house.
Lacomba only t old police about her disappearance when pressured by her eldest son. He was twice arrested before being charged.
In the early days of her disappearance, more than 1,000 local people helped 120 police officers.
Several members of Mrs Wellgreen’s family, including her 22year-old son Jack, were in court yesterday. He said: ‘Thanks to all members of the court including the jury. We would like to thank all the community searchers for their efforts. The family are pleased and happy with the result today. Justice has been served.’
Detective Chief Inspector Ivan Beasley said: ‘While we are yet to locate Sarah’s body, it is clear to us that Sarah is no longer alive due to the inactivity of her bank and phone accounts, no contact with friends or family and the fact she left the home without any of her personal items or shown any plans to leave.’
Kent Police plan to visit Lacomba in prison to see if he will disclose the body’s location. He will be sentenced on November 8.
‘Angry, bitter and controlling’