A man who murdered his first wife in a faked car crash and attempted to kill his second wife in the same manner for insurance money has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 30 years. Malcolm Webster, 52, a former nurse from Guildford, Surrey, was convicted in May of murdering 32-year-old Claire Morris in 1994 and fraudulently claiming over £200,000 from insurance policies.
Webster drugged Morris and drove their car off a remote Aberdeenshire road, then set it on fire while she was unconscious. He was also found guilty of attempting to murder his second wife, Felicity Drumm, 50, in a similar staged crash in New Zealand in 1999, aiming to claim more than £750,000 from a life insurance policy.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Bannatyne described the murder as 'coldblooded, brutal and callous' and noted Webster showed no remorse. The judge said his crimes were carried out for the 'basest of motives' – financial gain. Peter Morris, the victim's brother, called the sentence correct for 'an extremely dangerous criminal'.
Webster's schemes spanned from 1994 to 2008, including theft, fraud, and attempted bigamy. He attempted to marry a third woman, Simone Banerjee, while pretending to have leukaemia, trying to get her to take out a £500,000 life insurance policy. Banerjee, who attended the sentencing, said she felt 'very lucky to be alive'.
The investigation, Scotland's longest murder trial against a single accused, involved detectives from Scotland, England, and New Zealand. Advances in forensic science in 2007 allowed police to find traces of temazepam in Morris's liver, linking her murder to the attempted murder of Drumm.
