Life for man who killed his wife

Martin Baker said he knew nothing of his wife's disappearance

A 54-year-old man from Surrey has been jailed for life for murdering his wife amid fears he fed her to the pigs.

Tina Baker, 41, was last seen in July 2002 going to feed the animals at a farm in Chobham, Surrey, which she shared with her husband.

Martin Baker, from Egham, denied murdering her and said he did not see his wife the day she went to feed the animals at their farm.

He was jailed for life at the Old Bailey with a minimum term of 14 years.

Pig swill and manure were checked after Baker's first wife, Gillian Hopkins, told police he had threatened her before their divorce.

Your wicked disposal of her body deprived her family of a funeral and grieving process Judge Paul Focke

She told them he said to her: "Do you realise I have the power to make you disappear permanently? No-one would ever find you. I could cut you up and feed you to the pigs."

Detectives found no trace of Mrs Baker despite an extensive search.

Baker feared he would lose the £100,000 14-acre Brookfield Farm after Mrs Baker had walked out on him a month before she was last seen, the court heard.

After the case, Det Supt Brian Russell said: "Although she was going to the farm, we really had no body, no weapon and no crime scene. We do not know how she died, he could have fed her to the pigs, he could have buried her or dumped her in water."

Police are hoping to ask Baker to reveal where the body is

Mr Russell added that it seemed as though Mrs Baker had "just vanished off the face of the earth" when enquiries were made to trace her.

"We will be hoping to speak to Martin Baker in the near future to ask him to reveal where Tina's body is," he said.

Judge Paul Focke told Baker he became very concerned with the financial impact of divorce and subsequently discovered Mrs Baker was having an affair.

'Bubbly and besotted'

"You lay in wait for her when she was due to arrive to feed the animals.

"You killed her and promptly disposed of her body and car. Neither have been found. Thereafter you set out to maintain a charade that she was still alive.

"Your wicked disposal of her body deprived her family of a funeral and grieving process."

Mrs Baker's parents said they were relieved by the verdict.

Jean Doyle, her mother, said: "Tina was a lovely person. She was very bubbly and besotted by animals. It was her dream - since she was a little girl - to have her own farm, a dream she worked very hard to achieve only for her life to be cut so tragically short."