Former Policeman Pushed His Wife Off Cliff
<!-- SHARE --> <script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script> <!-- end SHARE --> 11:53am, Friday September 03, 2010
Tim Hewage
A former British police officer has been jailed for 33 years in Australia - the maximum allowed - after being convicted of the murder of his wealthy wife.
UK-born Des Campbell was given the sentence for pushing his newly-wed third wife, Janet Fisicaro, from a cliff near Sydney in 2005. The judge Megan Latham said: "Janet's death must have been truly awful. "The position of her shoe print and the broken tree branch... suggests that she was conscious and aware of her fate for some short period of time before she fell."
Campbell pitched his tent in the most uncomfortable and unsafe spot.
Campbell, 52, claimed his wife of six months had slipped and fallen from the 160ft (50m) edge while on her way to the toilet during a camping holiday. He broke down during questioning but the jury were not convinced by his display of grief.
Campbell wanted Janet Fisicaro's money to pay off his debts.
Janet Fisicaro had recently inherited a farming estate worth $500,000 (£295,000) and prosecutors claimed Campbell wanted it for himself. "He had got as much money out of her as he could and she was then worth more to him dead than alive," the court was told. Campbell, who once worked as a police constable in Surrey, had three other girlfriends during the relationship and went on holiday with one of them just weeks after his wife's death.
Des Campbell used to serve in the Surrey police force
His brother, Kevin Neander, described him as being "as low as a snake's guts." Campbell intends to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
