Malcolm Webster's cold-blooded web of calculated deceit and brutality is revealed in an explosive book published today, by award-winning journalist Charles Lavery.
Lavery broke the
world exclusive on the police investigation into Malcolm Webster aka ‘The Black
Widower’, and first brought the story to the world's attention. Now, in his
book The Black Widower: The Life and Crimes of a Sociopathic Killer,
Lavery investigates Webster and his life of crime.
Lavery’s story
spans continents and draws on court evidence, criminal profilers and forensic
experts speaking for the first time about the man who wanted it all – flash
yachts, houses and cars – and killed and poisoned to get them, ultimately
ending up behind bars. His was the longest trial of a single accused person in
Scottish legal history.
Webster killed his
first wife Claire in Aberdeenshire, tried to kill second wife Felicity Drumm in
her homeland of New Zealand, then returned to Oban in Scotland where a third
woman, Simone Banarjee, had to be warned by police that her life was in danger.
Webster was preparing to throw Banarjee from the yacht they owned during a
honeymoon sailing.
Two strong women
who survived Webster gave his first victim Claire a voice in court. Their
testimonies and the wealth of scientific evidence is recorded and examined by
Lavery in this, the first book to be published about Webster, his victims and
his crimes.
Lavery said:
"From the very first phone call, on a Friday night in a sunny Glasgow
street, alerting me to the police case building against Webster, I knew this
was a story I would have to follow to the very end. He is a fascinating
character, but the women he targeted and the strength of their collective voice
against him has been his undoing, coupled with some ground-breaking forensic
work never before attempted. I speak with the experts, the QC who prosecuted
him, the forensic pathologist who worked on the infamous 'sliver of liver' and
a criminal profiler who studied Webster exclusively for the book.”
"It has been
an interesting journey and the end result is a book that charts the life and
crimes of Webster, through the cold, hard evidence amassed by investigators
around the globe. With his appeal against his sentence due to be heard in
September, it is also a story that has yet to reach its conclusion", says
Lavery.
In the book, Derek
Ogg QC, speaks of a "most cruel and practised deceiver" who thought
he could cover his tracks by committing his crimes on opposite sides of the
world: "It was huge, the biggest case of my life by some distance.
The logistics of it were incredible. The timescale was incredible, as were the
time zones. It was a behemoth of a case and my job was to pull it into bite-sized
chunks, iigsaw pieces that a jury could join together in court. "I'll
never see another case like Webster, at least I hope I don't.”
Dr James Grieve,
the forensic pathologist who invented scientific techniques to prove that first
wife Claire Morris had been sedated prior to the car crash in Aberdeenshire,
speaks for the very first time about his involvement in the Webster case,
including some startling new evidence on steps he took to protect Claire
Morris's tissue samples, stored since her death in a fireball crash.
Grieve said:
"I can safely say Webster has been the single most interesting case. The
challenges involved, the man himself, the story of his crimes, and the fact
that we were able to help, gives me no small sense of satisfaction at a job
well done. He tried to manipulate people around him for his own gain and he
should pay the price for that. "My part in his downfall, as it were, is a
relatively small one, but I am glad we were able to provide the means to go
after him."
The Black
Widower by Charles Lavery is published today by Random House New Zealand
under the Mainstream imprint; RRP: NZ$34.99.
Charles Lavery has spent more than 20 years working as an investigative journalist. He was formerly the chief reporter at the Sunday Mail and now writes for several national publications on a freelance basis. He was named Reporter of the Year at the 2009 Scottish Press Awards. He is available for interview on publication. (www.charleslavery.org)
Footnote:
Story concerning his second wife, New Zealander Felicity Drumm, from Herald on Sunday, 8 July, 2012
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