My husband was jailed for murdering his first wife but I have no regrets about marrying him
The wife of a man who killed his first spouse and then asked his son to exhume her body has said she does not regret marrying him.
Andrew Griggs murdered his first wife, Debbie, in 1999 but was not convicted of the crime for another two decades.
After being jailed for life in 2019, the former fisherman asked one of his three sons to exhume their mother's body, which had never been found, as part of an elaborate plan to provide him with an alibi.
However, the plot unravelled when his son went to the police and Griggs was charged with further offences.
In April, he pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and on Friday at Canterbury Crown Court, prosecutors announced that a second charge of obstructing a coroner would be allowed to lie on file.
Griggs, who is not eligible to apply for parole until 2039, will be sentenced on June 2.
But his current wife, also named Debbie, has said she does not accept he is guilty and vowed to stand by him.
She told The Telegraph: 'I don't believe any of it. It goes against everything I know about him. I know him and I know he could not have done what they said he did.'
Griggs killed his first wife at their home in Deal, Kent in May 1999 before reporting her missing.
He was arrested on suspicion of murder several times but was not convicted of the crime until 2019.
After being jailed for life, he asked one of his three sons to exhume her body, take a lock of hair and then write to police purporting to be her, claiming she was still alive and living overseas.
He told his son he had not murdered his mother but had simply found her dead in the garden and had panicked and so buried the body.
But Jake Griggs was unable to go through with the plan and his mother's body was finally recovered by police on Oct 5 2022.
Griggs was arrested in prison and charged.
However, his current wife has insisted she believes her husband and will stand by him.
Speaking outside the home in Dorset, where Debbie's body had lain undiscovered for 20 years and where Mrs Griggs still lives, she said: 'We've been together for 20 years and I've never had a sign of any suspicions or doubt about him.
'He's never yelled at me. He's never raised a hand against me. I've got no regrets about marrying him.'
Mrs Griggs, 60, insists on her husband's innocence despite having attended his trial at Canterbury Crown Court in 2019 where she sat through the police account of Debbie's disappearance and his subsequent attempts to cover up her death.
'I was there in court and I didn't believe it because I know the person I married. It went against what I know of him,' she insisted when this publication approached her.
Mrs Griggs regularly makes the four-hour round trip from her home near the New Forest village of St Leonards to visit her husband at HMP Albany on the Isle of Wight
He continues to refuse to accept the verdict of guilt brought against him, still insisting by way of explanation that he buried Debbie's body only after finding her dead in the garden and panicking.
'Andrew has told me what actually happened with the whole thing, He's maintaining his innocence. He didn't murder his wife,' said Mrs Griggs. 'Why wouldn't I be happy with what he's told me? The truth doesn't change, whatever is said in court.'
A plank of the prosecution case against Griggs during the 2019 murder trial was that he had killed Debbie after she discovered he was having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
The teenager, now a woman in her late 30s, gave evidence for the prosecution, telling jurors that Griggs had groomed her at a time she was vulnerable
Griggs had tried to pave the way for his wife Debbie's 'disappearance' by telling family members and health professionals that she was suffering from depression, later claiming this was not the first time she had left him and falsely suggesting she had been a bad mother.
Mrs Griggs said she has learnt to live with the continued accusations that have emerged since her husband's arrest, in particular his ghoulish attempt to give himself an alibi by asking Jake to exhume his mother's body.
She stated: 'If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. It's only if you lie.'
Mrs Griggs added: 'Of course I miss him. We've done everything together. I can't speak for his boys, but I know they want to move on and put all this behind them. They have had enough.'
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