THE MANIPULATOR
Who is ‘Black Widower’ Malcolm Webster from C4’s Married To A Psychopath and where is he now?
A Channel 4 documentary examines Webster's evil crimes
MALCOLM Webster's reign of terror started in the 90s and didn't end until he was jailed in 2011.
Due to the nature of his crimes, the former nurse earned the sinister nickname "The Black Widower".
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Who is Malcolm Webster and where is he now?
Malcolm Webster was born on April 18, 1959, in Wandsworth, Surrey.
As a child, he earned the nickname "Pyro" due to his liking of fires.
He left school aged 15 with no qualifications, but as an adult, he worked as a nurse, a bin man, a driver, and an office clerk.
Malcolm's parents were both professional working people.
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Malcolm's mother was a nurse and his father was a Detective Chief Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police.
In 2011, he went on trial over the death of his first wife.
The trial lasted almost four months, and he was found guilty of murder, attempted murder, and attempting to marry a third time bigamously.
When allegations of his crimes came to light, a former nursing colleague of Malcolm's came forward.
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She reported that there were three unexpected deaths of children under his care while he was nursing in Abu Dhabi.
He had been forced to resign following an investigation but due to Islamic culture forbidding post mortems, there was insufficient evidence for a police investigation.
Wife murderer gets life term
Having murdered his first wife Claire in a staged car crash in Scotland, he then attempted a second fake crash in New Zealand to kill his second wife Felicity Drumm.
Felicity survived the murder attempt and it was discovered that she had been sedated which caught the attention of police.
Webster fled to Scotland and had many relationships and planned to marry another woman despite still being married.
Police warned her that her life could be in danger.
She initially dismissed it, but later discovered that someone had tampered with the life jacket she used when on her boat.
Webster was arrested and went on trial at Glasgow High Court in 2011, and was sentenced to life, with a minimum term of thirty years.
He remains in prison to this day.
Since his incarceration, Webster has launched many appeals against his conviction, all of which were dropped or rejected.
Detective Inspector Charles Henry who investigated Webster said: “Money is a motivation but also the lifestyle, being the centre of attraction because narcissism is a trait that psychopaths have".
“They have to be controlling so it’s not all about money, but also manipulation and the enjoyment of manipulation".
Who were Malcolm Webster's victims?
Claire Morris
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Webster married Claire Morris in September 1993, but he began secretly drugging her with tranquilisers and medication he'd stolen from his hospital.
The couple were only married for eight months before he killed her by staging a car crash north of Aberdeen.
Webster sought to disguise the killing by driving with his unconscious wife in the car down a secluded road and crashing it into a tree.
He then set the car on fire, with Claire in the passenger's seat.
At the time, police concluded it was an accident, and Webster was able to collect her £200,000 life insurance policy.
Felicity Drumm
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After the death of his first wife, he moved to Saudi Arabia and then to New Zealand.
There he married second wife Felicity Drumm in 1997, with whom he had a son.
They were married for two years before he tried to kill her.
Webster drove into a ditch with his wife inside, claiming that the steering had failed.
She escaped unharmed, however, blood tests at the hospital later showed she had been sedated.
Warrants for Webster's arrest were issued but he fled back to the UK.
It was later revealed that he had taken out insurance policies in Drumm's name worth almost £1million.
Simone Banarjee
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Back in Scotland, Webster started work at a hospital in Oban, Argyle, and began a relationship with Simone Banarjee, who was also a nurse.
Webster told Banarjee, who was wealthy, that he had terminal leukaemia and shaved off his hair and eyebrows.
They were planning to marry, despite the fact that he was still married to his second wife.
Banerjee altered her will to make him the beneficiary, though the police were by then on to Webster.
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How was Malcolm Webster caught?
The sister of Webster's second wife told police of her fears that he had killed his first wife and tried to kill Felicity.
This led to the reopening of the probe into his first wife's death.
Banarjee was given an Osman warning by the police, which alerts those who receive it to the risk of murder.
They told her that Webster did not have cancer and informed her about his allegations in New Zealand and Scotland.
The police announced they were re-examining Claire Morris' death in 2008, and news followed that New Zealand police were looking for him.
Malcolm was charged in 2009 for the murder of Claire Morris, the attempted murder of Felicity Drumm and attempting to bigamously marry Simone Banarjee to gain access to her estate.
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Who is DI Charles Henry?
Detective Inspector Charles Henry is an investigator who spent three years pursuing the case.
It was then a cold case, but his work led to the police reopening it.
In the investigation that followed, a team of 20 gathered over a thousand witness statements, and served 90 search warrants.
Charles left the force after Webster's arrest and was a police adviser and consultant on the ITV drama about his crimes The Widower.
How to watch Married To A Psychopath
Married To A Psychopath will air on Channel 4 on June 12, 2024, at 11.10pm.
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The two-part series can also be streamed right now on the C4 website.
The documentary talks to DI Charles Henry, plus people who knew Webster and his victims' families.
DI Charles Henry's verdict
DI Charles Henry explains more about evil Webster on Married to a Psychopath.
Speaking on the Channel 4 documentary about the killer, he said: “Any woman he befriended, their relationship was full of charming antidotes, little messages, romantic presents.“
"He was funny and engaging and even befriended police officers that worked in the local office in Oban, convincing them, and all his colleagues, he had terminal cancer.
DI Henry explained that Webster’s move to the seaside community of Oban was the beginning of his downfall.
He said: “He made a classic mistake, thinking he could flee to a small town where he can disappear, not get noticed and not have his past catch up with him.
“But the converse is true because individuals stand out in a small community so it's easier for us to obtain information."
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