Staged car crash killer launches new freedom bid

A MAN who murdered his wife in a staged car accident and tried to kill his second in a copycat crash has launched a fresh bid to clear his name.

Malcolm Webster pictured in 2011. Picture: PA

Malcolm Webster, 55, was jailed for a minimum of 30 years for killing Claire Morris, 32, in the planned crash in Aberdeenshire in 1994 and attempting to kill Felicity Drumm in New Zealand in 1999 to claim insurance money.

The former nurse, from Guildford, Surrey, was handed the life sentence after being convicted of the crimes in May 2011 following a five-month trial.

He lost an appeal against his conviction in December when judges at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh rejected a claim that he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Webster has now asked the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to look into his conviction and sentence.

The SCCRC’s role is to review and investigate cases where it is alleged that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred in relation to conviction, sentence or both.

Earlier this year, Webster launched an appeal against the length of his sentence, which he later dropped.

Webster claimed the death of Ms Morris was a tragic accident which happened when he swerved to avoid a motorcyclist.

The jury heard the killer drugged her before driving the car they were in off an Aberdeenshire road and starting a fire while she lay unconscious inside.

He fraudulently claimed more than £200,000 from insurance policies following her death, later spending it on a Range Rover car, a yacht and on seducing a string of women.

In 1999 he tried to murder Ms Drumm in a copycat car crash in New Zealand in an attempt to claim more than £750,000 of insurance money.