‘Brutal’ wife-killer fights 30-year prison sentence

LAWYERS acting for wife-killer Malcolm Webster have lodged ten separate grounds of appeal against his conviction and sentence claiming that he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

They plan to argue that the 30-year sentence imposed on the man branded “cold-blooded, brutal and callous” by a High Court judge was “excessive”.

Webster, 52, a former nurse from Guildford in Surrey, was handed one of the longest prison sentences ever imposed in Scotland when he was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh in July.

He was convicted of murdering his first wife, Claire Morris, 32, in Aberdeenshire in 1994 to inherit a £200,000 insurance payout, after drugging his wife, staging a road crash and setting fire to the car while she lay unconscious inside.

He was also convicted of trying to kill his second wife – Felicity Drumm – in New Zealand in 1999 in another staged crash. Webster accelerated to about 60 mph and veered across two motorway lanes before leaving the carriageway in an attempt to kill her.

Webster’s solicitor, John McLeod, confirmed yesterday that appeal papers had been lodged on Webster’s behalf with the appeal court in Edinburgh.

The appeal is expected to be heard next summer.