Show her killer no mercy, says victim’s brother
Plea to judges in Webster appeal
HE set fire to a car as his wife lay unconscious inside it, later collecting an insurance pay-out for her death.
Then Malcolm Webster tried unsuccessfully to repeat the ‘perfect murder’ on his second wife, only to be found out and jailed for a minimum of 30 years.
But the 53-year-old killer still refuses to admit his crimes, prompting a plea from his former brotherin-law for judges to ‘uphold justice’ at Webster’s appeal next month.
Peter Morris, 49, whose sister Claire had been married to Webster for only eight months when she died in the staged car crash in 1994, said: ‘I am praying the judges will stand by the original decision and ensure he pays for his terrible crimes against my sister and the others manipulated and conned by him.
‘This is the man who has so far cost the Scottish taxpayer more than £400,000 in legal aid. During this time, my family have not been afforded the grace of closure because of his human rights.
‘I would suggest that somebody who not only murders but who also destroys any beautiful memories that people have of that person, and single-handedly manages to pervert the meaning of truth itself, should not have these human rights.’
At Webster’s original trial last year, which lasted four months, judge Lord Bannatyne told the
DUPED: unrepentant killer that the murder of Claire, 32, on a road near Kingoodie in Aberdeenshire was ‘cold-blooded, brutal and callous’.
For 17 years, her family believed it was an accident until the truth emerged after former nurse Webster tried to do the same to his second wife Felicity Drumm in New Zealand in 1999.
Webster’s appeal against conviction and sentence includes a claim that the Crown failed to lead sufficient evidence to exclude accident as a cause of the fire in the car.
Last night, Mr Morris, who lives in Gillingham, Kent, and who will attend the two-day appeal, said: ‘I don’t know what is going to happen but if they reduce the sentence of someone who commits premeditated murder, what kind of message does that send out? I’m pretty confident, however, that the three senior judges handling the appeal will not quash his conviction.’
An emotional Mr Morris recalled the last poignant conversation he had with his sister just three days before she was murdered.
He had been delighted to hear from her but now realises Webster was behind the call from Claire: ‘Now I know, in his sick head, it was his way of making sure we had a proper conversation before he killed her, sort of as a final goodbye. It was his way of easing his conscience. My darling sister and I hadn’t spoken for a few months, not because we had fallen out or anything, but just because as a typical male I hardly ever rang anybody.
‘We talked about how much fun the reception and ceilidh had been after the wedding. Our conversation went on to what we were up to at that time. I had just started a new job... Claire was apprehensively excited about her final university exams which were coming up the following week... Life was good and there was so much to look forward to.’
But three days later Mr Morris was devastated by a phone call to say she was dead: ‘For 14 years I believed that sometimes fate conspired for the right things to occur at the right time. I told myself it was fate that Claire had been in that terrible car crash but also fate that we’d been able to speak at such length and with such joy just before it had happened. Now I know that is not true.’
‘It was Malcolm and his “evil kindness” that, knowing he was going to murder Claire, had whispered in her unknowing ear: “Why don’t you give your brother a ring, see how he is?”
‘I wish I could believe that when this is over we will finally be able to begin the grieving process. But I think he will pursue his case through the European courts because he refuses to accept his guilt.’