POLICE have vowed to continue their search for the body of an Accrington woman who was murdered and dismembered by her son-in-law.

The assurances came as Muhammed Arshad, 37, was sentenced to life in prison for killing 56-year-old mother-of-six Zainab Begum after a two-and-a-half week trial at Preston Crown Court.

His brother, Mohammed Sharif Khan, 39, was sentenced to seven years in prison for helping to dispose of the body parts.

Despite exhaustive searches, police have never recovered her body.

Detective Inspector Jim Elston, the senior investigating officer on the case, said: "While we don't want to raise the family's expectations that we are going to be able to find Mrs Begum's remains, we haven't given up all hope that that may happen.

"We will take stock of the situation over the coming weeks and in the New Year we will make a decision as to the best way forward.

"Obviously when we sat down to discuss some of the options we have it will include visiting the defendants in prison."

He added: "The murder and subsequent dismemberment of Mrs Begum was a horrific and unimaginable tragedy for her family. Their suffering was cruelly aggravated by the fact that her body has never been recovered.

"Hopefully the conviction of Arshad and Khan and the sentence passed may bring them some comfort, but they won't have closure on these terrible events until they know what has happened to her remains.

"The police will act upon any new information that may lead to that location."

It took the jury seven hours to reach unanimous guilty verdicts against both men.

There were cries of relief from Mrs Begum's family who have been present throughout as the guilty verdicts were announced.

But the brothers, who had both wept while giving evidence during the trial, stood motionless in the dock.

Sentencing Arshad, who worked in the butchery section of Hollands Pies, in Baxenden, to life in prison Judge Dame Heather Steel said: "This was a planned, cold-blooded brutal killing. You were a butcher by trade and you butchered your victim using some fearsome tools.

"Without doubt your motive for killing your mother-in-law was to obtain her house and her money.

"Your motive may also have been personal dislike - you resented her authority in the family - but your primary motive was greed."

Arshad - who must serve a minimum 24 years - murdered Mrs Begum in the front bedroom of her home, dragged her body into the bathroom and using tools he claimed to have bought to use in the takeaway he started to dismember her body.

His brother then picked him up from the house and helped him take the body to the Millennium takeaway, where it is believed Arshad cut up her body further.

The pair spent all night cleaning the takeaway and were captured on a town centre CCTV camera loading boxes into the boot of the car at around 8am the following morning. They then drove to their home in Crumpsall, Manchester.

Dame Steel said: "You have never truthfully revealed what happened in the front bedroom at Burnley Road or what happened to her body, or how you disposed of her and because of this the family has been deprived of the right and opportunity to grieve for her, to mourn her, to say goodbye to her, to put her body to rest in a grave that they could visit."

She said the defendant had lied to cover his tracks, claiming at one point that Mrs Begum had been abducted by four masked men.

He then changed his story to say she banged her head and died after he pushed her away when she made a pass at him, all of which was rejected by the jury as lies.