A “dishonest and manipulative” married man has been sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in jail for the murder of a female student who went to his church.

Shohfah-El Israel, 40, whose birth name is Ajibola Shogbamimu, was convicted by a jury at Reading crown court of killing Joy Morgan after spending two days alone with her in December.

The 20-year-old midwifery student’s body has never been recovered, despite extensive police searches of hundreds of hectares of land in Hertfordshire.

After initially lying to police and claiming he had dropped Morgan off at her student accommodation in Hatfield after a church dinner on 26 December, Israel later admitted to spending two nights alone with her in his flat in Cricklewood, north-west London.

He said he had lied because of strict rules at the Israel United in Christ church, which they both attended, that prohibited women from spending time in the company of men other than their husbands.

Shohfah-El Israel. Photograph: Hertfordshire Police/PA

Passing sentence, Judge Michael Soole said: “Only you know the circumstances of your terrible deed and why you did it. You are evidently an intelligent man and have said nothing beyond the lies and the explanations which the jury has rejected.”

Soole said Israel had caused “very particular and continuing distress and suffering” with his “cruel and cowardly silence about Joy Morgan’s final resting place”. Israel, supporting himself with a walking stick, looked at the floor as he was sentenced.

The court heard that after killing Morgan, a student at the University of Hertfordshire, Israel attempted to cover his tracks by removing her number from a church group chat on the Telegram app and going to her student house share to pretend to check on her in the days after she went missing.

A signal from Morgan’s phone, which has never been found, was detected in Israel’s car in the Stevenage area on 28 December, at which point the jury was told he was most likely “looking for somewhere to dispose of the body”. The keys to Morgan’s house were discovered in the footwell of his car after his arrest in February.

Israel – who is originally from Nigeria – denied having sex with Morgan, insisting he saw her as a daughter. In a message sent in March 2018, Israel told Morgan she was an “amazing princess” and “a treasure that cannot be measured”.

Morgan’s mother, Carol, who is not a member of the church, reported her daughter’s disappearance to police on 7 February, six weeks after she was last seen. The court heard that Morgan had been reported missing previously in 2013 and 2014, but only for a day on each occasion.

A victim impact statement read on behalf of Morgan’s mother, who attended the four-week trial with other relatives, described her as “my shining light and my superstar”. “She was such a wonderful person, selfless, caring, loved by so many,” the statement read.

The Israel United in Christ church, founded in the US in 2003 and led by Bishop Nathanyel Ben Israel, teaches that black and Hispanic people are the “biblical 12 tribes of the nation of Israel”. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate and extremist organisations in the US, includes the church’s 44 American branches in a list of “black nationalist hate groups”.

While male members have ranks including officers and soldiers, female members have no ranks and are called sisters. The court was told that women in the church often referred to men as Sir and Master.

The Hainault Street branch in east London, which Morgan attended with about 150 members, is one of two in the UK, with another in the West Midlands. Israel, like many members of the church, adopted a Hebrew first name and the surname Israel.