Lover of alleged wife killer 'was warned about him by police'

A WOMAN who had a relationship with a man accused of murdering his first wife and trying to kill his second was handed a letter by police warning her about his past, a court has heard.

Simone Banarjee, 41, an agency nurse, said the letter given to her by police in January 2008 had been titled "Disclosure" and it named Malcolm Webster.

Ms Banarjee told the High Court in Glasgow she did not believe the contents of the letter but later confronted Webster, 51, about the warning at the house they shared. She said Webster went "absolutely white" and "very, very quiet" for a few seconds before leaving the house.

Webster is charged with murdering Claire Morris, 32, in Aberdeenshire in May 1994 and attempting to murder second wife Felicity Drumm in New Zealand five years later as part of a plot to pocket almost 1 million in insurance pay-outs.

It is alleged he murdered Ms Morris by drugging her, putting her in a car, driving it off the road and torching it while she was unconscious in the vehicle.

Ms Banarjee told the court she met Webster in a corridor at a hospital in Oban on 5 August, 2004, while working as a theatre manager, and he later told her he had not remarried after his first wife died.

Ms Banarjee said she became romantically involved with him in December 2005, after her previous relationship ended, and he moved into her 270,000 four-bedroom detached house in January 2006. She said she was in love with Webster, he had proposed to her and they had gone to collect an engagement ring from a jeweller in Edinburgh.

Webster, from Guildford in Surrey, is accused of fraudulently obtaining more than 200,000 after allegedly cashing in a series of insurance policies after the death of his first wife.

It is also alleged he intended to marry Ms Banarjee bigamously, and told her he was terminally ill with leukaemia when he was actually in good health.

Webster denies the seven charges against him, which run to 11 pages on the indictment.

It is claimed he induced Ms Banarjee to make a will leaving everything to him, including her house, 50,000 in shares and her half share in a 38ft ocean-going yacht. It is also alleged he falsely told her he was having chemotherapy for chronic lymphatic leukaemia.

Asked by Derek Ogg, QC, prosecuting, what happened when she confronted Webster about the police letter - known as an Osman warning - Ms Banarjee told the court: "He went absolutely white. He went very, very quiet and at that point, I wished I was not in the room."She added: "I have never seen him like that before."

The court heard police were outside the property when she confronted Webster.

Ms Banarjee later told the court Webster had admitted, after she confronted him about the warning letter, that he had lied about having leukaemia.

Mr Ogg also read from e-mails sent in January 2008, which Ms Banarjee said had been between her and Webster.

In one e-mail, sent on 24 January, 2008, Ms Banarjee had written saying she felt her life had been "ripped apart" after he said he had lied. In other messages, she said she had stayed up at night "willing the leukaemia to go away" and that the "sun had gone from her universe".

The court was told that in one reply, Webster was said to have written that he wished he had not "lied" about having leukaemia and that he had completely "messed up".

"It would be ironic I guess if I really did get sick!" part of one e-mail said.

Webster is further charged with deliberately crashing his car in Auckland, New Zealand, in February 1999, in an attempt to kill second wife Felicity, who was a passenger. He allegedly did so as part of an attempt to fraudulently obtain more than 750,000 in separate insurance pay-outs.

The case continues.