A husband who killed his new bride days after their wedding and used her inheritance money to go on a round the world trip has been jailed for life today.

Debbie Starbuck was last seen alive just six days after she married husband Jamie nine months after the pair met on the internet.

Starbuck admitted killing Debbie and disposing of her body before flying off on a 31-month journey that took in a variety of exotic locations across six continents.

He was jailed for a minimum of 30 years at Nottingham Crown Court today in a case the judge described as ‘one of the most horrific’ he could remember.

Starbuck was arrested by detectives at Heathrow Airport as he returned from Peru in January.

Debbie’s body has never been found and it is believed that Starbuck killed his wife eight days after they married, then dismembered her body before burning it at their home.

The court heard that Starbuck met Debbie, 44, online in July 2009 and that the pair went on to rent a Nottingham house and marry on April 21 2010.

But Debbie wasn’t seen again after April 27 and a month later her husband boarded an Amsterdam plane alone with a one-way ticket.

Debbie, who was a self-employed proof reader, had inherited £150,000 several years before she met her husband.

Detectives proved that Starbuck spent nearly £65,000 of her money to fund his trip abroad.

On his travels he visited 32 countries in total including Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Laos, Abu Dhabi, Belize and Honduras.

Concerns about Debbie’s whereabouts were not raised until two years after the couple’s wedding when a friend informed police that he had not heard from her.

Detectives discovered that her passport had expired but money had been transferred from her bank account into Starbuck’s.

Starbuck had redirected his mail, sold several of the couple’s possesions and booked a one way ticket abroad.

When he was arrested at Heathrow airport, Starbuck was found to have two of Debbie’s bank cards in his wallet.

An examination of his laptop also revealed a ‘confession’, where he admitted Debbie’s murder.

Police were unable to ascertain how Debbie died but during their investigation they found an unsent email from Starbuck that read: ‘I had planned for it to be quick… I never expected you to be so durable.’

Sentencing Starbuck, Michael Stokes QC said: ‘On more than 75 homicides, I’m trying hard to think of one as horrific as this.’

He described the killing as a ‘grotesque and inhumane act’, adding: ‘This case shows the categories of wickedness are never closed.

‘You knew she came from a strict Jewish background where cremation is wholly outside their tradition. You dismembered her body and burnt it. Even in death you stripped her of all dignity.’

Detective Chief Inspector Rob Griffin, of Notts Police, who led the investigation into Debbie’s disappearance and murder, said following the sentencing: ‘Even though concerns for Debbie were only reported last year, all our enquiries seemed to link back to Jamie as being the last person to see her alive.

‘His activities seemed very strange and out of character, heading off suddenly on his travels. He was obviously running away from what he had done to Debbie.

‘This was an extremely complex case, where we had to plot where Jamie had been, where he was moving on to, and consider all the possibilities of what he would do next.

‘As part of routine enquiries, we emailed both Debbie and Jamie’s accounts asking them to make contact. Jamie never replied.

‘However we later discovered that a number of emails claiming to be from Debbie, sent to her family and friends in an attempt to convince them she was alive, were actually sent on the same day and from exactly the same location as emails sent from Jamie to other people.’

He added: ‘We have learnt that Jamie Starbuck is a very controlling man, who engineered a situation to ensure he could benefit financially from Debbie’s disappearance.

‘He helped her “set up” online banking accounts, which meant he knew her passwords, and encouraged her to withdraw from her friends.

‘We can only speculate as to whether Jamie only married Debbie for the sole purpose of getting to her money, but he has been traveling around the globe for over 31 months, and we know her murder was premeditated as he went to great lengths to dispose of any evidence, including her body – which we are yet to find.