By Jenny Suo
Malcolm Webster went to great lengths to try and kill his two wives.
Drugging them, crashing cars, setting fires - all in the hope of getting their money or life insurance. Today a jury in Scotland saw right through him.
After weeks of evidence they took just four hours to convict him of murdering his first wife and attempting to murder his second wife, New Zealander Felicity Drumm.
He's been branded one of Scotland’s most notorious criminals.
Malcolm Webster spun a 20 year web of betrayal at opposite ends of the earth.
“He’s just a danger to the life of any woman that he comes across,” says North Shore Detective Constable Glenn Gray.
In 1994, Webster's first wife Claire Morris died in a car accident. Webster was at the wheel but escaped before it caught fire. Everyone thought it was an accident, including Morris's family.
“This was the first and only guy that she genuinely fell in love with,” says Peter Morris.
They'd been married for less than eight months but Webster had convinced Claire to sign over her life savings.
He had drugged and murdered her and walked away with over $400,000 from a life insurance policy.
Webster then met Kiwi Felicity Drumm. They were married, and after a few years in Scotland, they moved to New Zealand.
Then there was a house fire at Felicity's parents’ home where the couple was staying.
Two days later Malcolm tried to crash a car on Auckland's North Western motorway with Felicity inside.
The car started weaving as he was driving towards a metal pole. Felicity turned the wheel away and when she got out of the car Webster faked a heart attack.
The family then found life insurance documents that Webster had forged. Within a week, Webster fled New Zealand with Felicity’s life savings. She went to the police and realised she had been drugged many times during their marriage.
Scottish police wouldn’t open the inquiry into the death of Webster’s first wife until Jane Drumm told the family story to English police in 2006.
“We were really concerned that some other poor woman would fall into his clutches,” says Jane Drumm.
Today's guilty verdicts are a vindication for the families of both victims. Felicity Drumm has pulled her life together after she was left penniless and now owns her own home.
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