THIS is the chilling moment evil Ben Lacomba refused to answer hundreds of police questions after murdering his ex and dumping her body.
The twisted 39-year-old has tortured Sarah Wellgreen's family by never revealing where he buried her – meaning they have been "unable to grieve".
The taxi driver was locked in a tense custody battle with his Sarah, 46, who was planning to buy Lacomba out of their four-bedroom property in New Ash Green, Kent.
She had found love with a new man and was moving on with her life when evil Lacomba killed her at their home in October last year.
Harrowing footage shows Lacomba refusing to answer a single question after being arrested when the mum disappeared – despite later claiming at his trial he had wanted to do "everything in his power" to find her.
He was today caged for life with a minimum of 27 years – minus 322 spent in custody – after being found guilty of murder at Woolwich Crown Court.
Sentencing, Judge Christopher Kinch QC said: "No one knows how you killed Sarah. It must be hoped that she did not suffer too much.
"You deliberately set out to deprive them [her children] of their mother. It is hard to imagine something more callous or chilling.”
'WAS SHE IN PAIN?'
Sarah's mum Ann Reed today told of her torment over her "beautiful" daughter, who she has been unable to bury.
She said: "Was she drugged or in pain? How did she die? When did she die?
“Did he torment her? Did she know what was going to happen to her?
“Will I ever get to give her a proper funeral? To be able to give her a nice send off and then have somewhere to go to pay my respects to her.
“Until I get my daughter back, I can’t grieve properly for her."
Her children also gave emotional statements as the monster was jailed – saying their world has "fallen apart".
Son Lewis, 23, pays tribute to his mum
“Over the last year I have shut myself from everyone. I pushed away my family and friends. I just wanted to be on my own.
“My mind was so occupied on finding answers that I couldn’t concentrate.
“I put on a fake smile but deep down I’m an emotional wreck.
“I still pick up the phone to ring her but then realise I can’t.
“My life will never be the same now she’s gone. Knowing there is nothing I can do makes me feel dead inside.
“All I ever wanted was the truth about what happened to my mum. Rest in peace mum. I love you.”
Sarah was last seen alive at around 8pm on October 9 last year, when she pulled into a car park near her home and walked in the front door.
Lacomba was waiting inside and had already turned off CCTV cameras covering the property.
The trial heard he "unusually and quite deliberately" left his red taxi with a distinctive All Night Cars logo in a second car park so he would not be spotted by neighbours.
In the hours after the murder the red Vauxhall Zafira was captured at eight different locations between 2.13am and 4.27am.
Police believe he disposed of Sarah's body during this time but despite more than 1,250 locations being searched and officers trawling 22,000 hours of CCTV, she has never been found.
Lacomba was first arrested on suspicion of Sarah's murder by two plain clothes officers at 1.55pm on October 16 – five days after he had reported her as missing.
He was interviewed on eight separate occasions over the next two days for a total of five hours and 49 minutes – but answered "no comment" to each question.
He was released and re-arrested two months later on December 20 – but again remained tight-lipped and showed no emotion or concern during the three interviews.
Sarah’s son Jack, 22, pays tribute to his mum
“Losing my mum is the most traumatic thing I have ever known, ripping a hole in my heart.
“I feel so guilty that I wasn’t there to keep her safe.
“She was teaching me to be a homeowner and a landlord. We were making plans to have everyone in one place.
“Since October last year, my confidence has been taken away.
“I don’t like to talk about how this has hurt me. It breaks my heart. She will never see how well we have all done. Who we have grown up to be.
“Losing someone so close to you is hard enough but with no body or understanding of what happened, I don’t believe we will get closure.”
He added: “Part of me doesn’t want to find mum as that will be the final closure. I don’t want to face the reality of her being dead.
“I’m so angry that Ben hasn’t told us where she is, selfish and torturing our whole family.”
Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC told the court: "He didn't dare open his mouth. To do so would have risked unravelling everything he had been trying to piece together, all the lies he had been telling."
Lacomba, who is father to three of Sarah's children, later claimed he had been asleep at the time but one of his children told officers they had woken in the middle of the night and couldn't find either parent.
He also Sarah had a “weird life” and was “seeing a lot of men” in the hope of shifting blame.
The killer’s mum Maryln later told police he threw his Samsung phone into the Thames following a visit by detectives four days after Sarah's disappearance.
Some of the questions Lacomba refused to answer during police interviews
- His movements on the night of October 9 and early hours of October 10;
- When he last saw Sarah;
- Whether he had anything to do with her disappearance, or if he knew anything that might help to find her;
- His relationship with Sarah and how he felt about her relationships with others;
- The bedding which was on her bed at the time she disappeared (said to be wet and later found stuffed in a drawer);
- Where he went on October 14, and what he did with his phones, in particular the Samsung Galaxy S8 he had promised to give to police on October 12 (He had thrown it together with his other Samsung in the River Thames at nearby Greenhithe);
- Child benefit payments;
- His use of mobile phones;
- How he felt about Sarah buying him out of their house, and where he would live afterwards;
- Whether he had disposed of a pair of brown shoes and why he was wearing grey shoes in CCTV footage of him at work at All Night Cars on October 10;
- The T-shirt in the shed – whose it was, how it got there, and why it was in the condition that it was (wet, rolled up and stuffed on a shelf);
- Whether the account given by an occupant in the house who woke to find neither Sarah nor Lacomba at home in the early hours of October 10 was true;
- The whereabouts of Sarah's missing iPhone4;
- Whether, and if so why, he threw his phone into the river on October 14;
- Why he parked in a different car park to the one next to his house on October 9;
- Why was his vehicle muddy on the morning of October 10, having been clean the previous day when he arrived home, and then clean again later on October 10;
- Was he the driver of the car seen to travel from Bazes Shaw at 2.13am on October 10 and through country lanes to the remote village of Stansted.
The next day, Lacomba asked for £300 and bought an identical phone from Cash Converters.
The court heard his car was clean on the day of Sarah’s disappearance, but had mud splattered on both sides the following morning. It was then professionally cleaned again by midday.
Lacomba was also said to have bought a large shovel despite having a paved garden with fake grass and small flower beds.
'TELL US WHERE SHE IS'
Sarah's boyfriend Neil James, 46, said the couple were planning to marry in Spain before she disappeared.
In her some of her final text messages the night before her death, she wrote to him about rows with Lacomba after finding out she had landed a new job.
She said: "Just feel that a whole weight has been lifted and then that fat t**t says ‘oh you won’t be able to get benefits for the kids’.
She added at 9.10pm: “Just want the house to myself now.”
Speaking outside the courtroom last week, Mr James said he was "relieved" with the verdict.
Timeline: What happened to Sarah Wellgreen?
- 2004 Ben Lacomba and Sarah Wellgreen meet online. They enter into a long-distance relationship before she moves to live with him in Majorca. Whilst in Spain, they have their first child together.
- 2006 Lacomba and Ms Wellgreen move back to the UK due to financial issues.
- 2014 The couple separate but remain living together in the family home.
- July 2018 Ms Wellgreen contacts a mortgage broker about buying Lacomba out of their house.
- September 13, 2018 Ms Wellgreen is informed that the mortgage has been approved.
- October 8 Ms Wellgreen is offered a new job as a business development manager.
- October 9 4.50pm – Lacomba drops off his last customer of the day in Sevenoaks and then books off work. He returns home and waits for Ms Weelgreen to return around three hours later.
- October 11 Lacomba telephones the police to report Ms Wellgreen missing.
- October 12 Police search the family home.
- October 14 Police visit the home again.
- October 16 Police seize Lacomba's Vauxhall car. He is arrested and later released on bail.
- December 20 Lacomba is arrested for a second time and charged with murder.
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He said: "The right decision has been made and hopefully he will let us know where her body is.
"Only this morning my daughter was asking where her mummy was.
"Let's hope he [Lacomba] rots inside."
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