THE woman who instigated a reinvestigation into wife killer Malcolm Webster has said she is "really delighted" justice has been served on the man who tried to murder her sister.
Jane Drumm, from New Zealand, prompted police to re-examine the 1994 death of Claire Morris, Webster’s first wife, in a car crash in Aberdeenshire that was originally ruled an accident.
Her sister Felicity Drumm became Webster’s second wife in 1997 and was drugged and robbed by her husband, who also tried to kill her in a car crash in Auckland in 1999. He also started house fires at the home of her parents and at a luxury property the couple were due to buy.
Although police in New Zealand investigated complaints from Felicity Drumm, no criminal charges were brought. But while in Britain for a conference in 2005, Jane Drumm, who campaigns against domestic violence, raised her fears with a policeman in the north of England.
As a result, Grampian officers were urged by the officer to examine if there was enough evidence to justify re-opening the investigation into the death of Ms Morris.
Webster was finally convicted of the murder of his first wife and the attempted murder of Felicity Drumm, the mother of his only son, in order to access their estates, worth a combined total of almost £1 million, at the High Court in Glasgow on Thursday.
Jane Drumm said: “He is an arrogant, horrible, evil man. He is a sociopath and has used people for years and years.
“Justice has been given to my sister and to Claire and her family, and to my parents.
“There were a number of times where we could easily have lost my sister. To me it was just amazing good fortune we have still got her. She was left completely cleaned out financially with a little child.”
Yesterday, Grampian Police again said there will be no review of the way the 1994 crash was investigated at the time.
Peter Morris, the victim’s brother, has called for a personal apology from the officers who made mistakes at the time, but DCI Phil Chapman, who led the investigation that resulted in Webster’s conviction, said all reasonable lines of inquiry had been followed. He said it was developments in forensic science, unavailable in 1994, that gave officers the breakthrough.
Lesley Roberts, the last person to see Ms Morris alive the day before the fatal car crash, told The Herald she had always believed Webster had killed his wife. She eventually went to police with her concerns in 2006 and said she had wanted to raise the alarm at the time of the 1994 accident.
She said: “My then husband thought I shouldn’t say anything and he believed Malcolm, he was taken in by his charm. It got to the point that I couldn’t sleep at night, I was having a bad time. My new partner told me I should go to the police.”
She said she felt “massive relief” at the guilty verdict.
It has emerged police feared Webster was planning to murder his third wife-to-be, Simone Banerjee, on their honeymoon voyage.
Senior officer Charles Henry tracked Webster’s movements following a tip-off in 2006 and he discovered that the couple were planning to celebrate their wedding by competing in a transatlantic race from the Canaries to the Caribbean.
Mr Henry reportedly said: “Webster is a potential serial killer and it was the ideal scenario for him.
“Simone was in absolute danger and I was convinced she was going to be his next victim.”
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