'Lover carried accused wife-killer to bed after he lied over leukaemia'

A MAN accused of killing his first wife and trying to murder his second was sometimes carried to bed by his lover because she believed he had leukaemia, a court has heard.

Malcolm Webster, 51, is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of murdering Claire Morris in Aberdeenshire in May 1994, and gaining more than 200,000 in an insurance pay-out after her death.

He is also accused of trying to kill his second wife Felicity Drumm in New Zealand to obtain a further 750,000 from separate insurance policies.

And he faces a further charge of attempting to bigamously marry Simone Banarjee and inducing her to make a will leaving everything to him, as well as lying about having leukaemia.

Ms Banarjee, 41, said her former lover appeared to live beyond his nurse's salary and that she was in debt by the end of their relationship.

The trial has previously heard Webster bought a 50,000 boat with Ms Banarjee.

Asked yesterday by the Advocate Depute Derek Ogg QC about Webster's spending habits, she said "they were out of control".

Ms Banarjee said she believed Webster's money had come from the sale of a flat he said he had inherited from his uncle in Brighton.

She said: "I believed him to be on a similar salary to myself. I don't know if he had money from another source, but I don't know if I could have spent the same amount myself without being beyond my means."

She said, for example, she had suggested a "budget Christmas" to Webster in 2007, with a limit of 20 each, but he had gone on to spend "considerably more than that".

She told the court: "He must have had some money from somewhere".

Webster also told Ms Banarjee he was terminally ill with leukaemia, when he was in fact in good health, the court heard.

She said he suffered from what she described as "10:30 syndrome", where he would suffer spells of dizziness and fainting that were "regular as clockwork".

She said the fainting was so bad that he would sometimes have to crawl up the stairs to bed, or she would carry him.

Ms Banarjee, who met Webster in 2004 and started a relationship with him in 2005, wiped away tears as she described how his lies had left her "fragile". Her voice cracked with emotion as she said: "It has had quite a major impact on my life."

Another of Webster's former lovers told the trial he had suggested they both change their wills in each other's favour.

Christina Willis said he mooted the idea when they were planning to build an extension to her bungalow, which they both lived in.The 61-year-old said she became anxious to draw up a legal agreement to cover them both if one of them died.

But instead, Webster suggested they change their wills and give each other power of attorney. The relationship ended three days before Christmas 2007 when he told her he had been, diagnosed with leukaemia.

She said: "I was upset at the relationship coming to an end, but to be told that he had leukaemia was just awful news."

Webster denies all the charges. The trial continues.