A couple who drowned a homeless woman in their bath and went on to claim her benefits have both been jailed for life.
Kevin Flanagan, 39, and his girlfriend Kathleen Salmond, 40, killed Lisa Bennett and then dumped her body in a wheelie bin in 2013.
Days later, her remains were unwittingly taken away by refuse collectors and incinerated with other waste at a council disposal plant.
Her body has never been found.
Salmond was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years. She will also serve 6 years for preventing a burial and 10 months for fraud to run concurrently, Birmingham Live reports.
Flanagan was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum term of 32 years. He will also serve four years and ten months for preventing a burial and 8 months for fraud to run concurrently.
The pair's sick crime was exposed by Flanagan's own brother, who told police his sibling had confessed to the killing.
Salmond, who previously appeared at the trial via video link from a bed, was also found guilty of benefit fraud as well as preventing 39-year-old Miss Bennett's burial - charges Flanagan previously admitted.
In all, the cruel couple netted £4,979 in benefits while maintaining the pretence their victim was still alive.
Flanagan, of Kings Norton, Birmingham, and Salmond, of Hodge Hill, Birmingham, were convicted on Wednesday after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
Today they refused to attend their sentencing.
In a victim impact statement from Miss Bennett's mother, Janet Bennett, she said: "Lisa was my eldest daughter and I loved her with all my heart. I didn’t approve of the life she lived but she was still my daughter.
"My hope was that she would be able to turn her life around. I didn’t know whether she would be able to make that change, but that chance was taken away from her when she was murdered.
"Since the day she went missing, I have lived in hope that she was still alive and well. I spent my days waiting for her to come home or to ring me to say she was ok.
"I found myself searching crowds for her face. Not a day goes by without me thinking of Lisa.
Jurors heard how the victim was told she would be eating her "last dinner" while afterwards her body was "callously" disposed of.
The remains were then "incinerated" at a community waste facility, prosecuting barrister Simon Denison QC told the jury of nine men and three women
No trace of Miss Bennett's body has been found.
Salmond, who is now largely confined to a bed or wheelchair, and Flanagan carried out the killing at their flat in Weirbrook Close in Weoley Castle, Birmingham, on or around May 9, 2013.
The jury heard how the defendants then "reaped the benefit of Lisa's disappearance", after Salmond phoned the Department for Work and Pensions, pretending to be Miss Bennett, and arranging for £230 benefit to be paid into her own account.
Miss Bennett was dependent on a cocktail of prescription medications and a daily dose of Subutex - a heroin substitute.
The court heard that on May 9 she failed to collect her prescription from Lloyds pharmacy in Selly Oak.
Flanagan also used the victim's phone to text her mother "to make her believe that nothing had happened and Lisa was alive", prosecutors said.
When questioned over the disappearance, the couple "calmly" told police Miss Bennett was "alive and well" and that she had asked them to transfer her benefits into Salmond's account.
The pair also claimed a fictitious boyfriend of Miss Bennett's, who they named Ian, was collecting the cash each week.
Under cross-examination from Salmond's barrister, Flanagan insisted he told his brother Miss Bennett "died from an overdose".
But jurors convicted Flanagan, and his co-accused, after a trial lasting just over three weeks.
As he was found guilty, Flanagan, who had numerous previous convictions going back more than 20 years for theft, robbery, shoplifting, did not react.
Salmond, who has a history of offending going back to 2010 with convictions for assault and battery, did not appear to move in her bed as the verdicts were returned.
Opening the case against the defendants, Mr Denison said: "Lisa died in their flat, on or around May 9 2013. Her body has never been found. She has no grave.
"The prosecution case is that the defendants murdered her, and then callously disposed of her body in the communal bins opposite their flat, where it lay undiscovered before the bins were emptied and the contents were taken to the council waste disposal facility a few days later.
"There, her body was incinerated with the community's waste.
"What they did, we suggest, was carry out a plan - to kill her, to conceal her body so it wouldn't be found, to lie and lie and lie in pretending that she was alive, and to take her money for themselves.
"It is an almost-inhuman thing to do, is it not, to treat not just a human body but the body of someone they knew, as a piece of rubbish to be thrown away."
The couple's crimes were only uncovered when Flanagan's brother came forward in 2014, after seeing a televised public appeal for information about Miss Bennett.
Mr Denison said: "When he saw the TV appeal he realised what his brother had told him was true, and seeing Lisa's mother not knowing what had happened to her daughter - when he did know - had affected him to the extent that he had to come forward, even though he said he loved his brother."
Speaking afterwards, David Parsons, of the CPS, said: "Kevin Flanagan and Kathleen Salmond have received lengthy jail sentences for the brutal and senseless murder of a vulnerable woman.
"Flanagan will be 71 years and Salmond will be 67 years before they can be considered for release.
"They befriended Lisa Bennett and then callously cut her life short causing immeasurable pain for those who loved her.
"Lisa's parents were deprived of the opportunity to bury their daughter and say goodbye.
"Today, they have received life sentences for their crimes and while this can never bring Lisa back, I hope today's sentencing brings some small comfort to Lisa's parents who have suffered immensely due to Flanagan and Salmond's cruelty."
