A former British police officer accused of duping a string of divorcees and widows out of their money is being investigated over the death of his third wife. Des Campbell, 48, claimed that his wife had accidentally fallen down a cliff while on a camping trip at an Australian beauty spot. But an inquest into Janet Campbell’s death was halted last week after her friends and family claimed that she had been killed for her money.
Several of Mr Campbell’s ex-girlfriends, including a former colleague at Surrey Police, accused him of preying on rich and vulnerable women, describing him as a “manipulative” and “charming” schemer.
Mr Campbell had been married to his third wife for six months when he persuaded her to go camping in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, in March 2005. He claimed that she had left the tent, pitched five metres from a 40-metre-high cliff, in the middle of the night to go “for a pee” and had fallen over the edge. He told police that he had heard his wife sigh and “thought she was playing a game of hiding with me”. He had found her body at the bottom of the cliff.
The inquest at Glebe Coroner’s Court in Sydney was told that as Mrs Campbell’s family and friends were attempting to come to terms with her death, he was busy making plans for his future. On the first business day after his wife’s death he asked an estate agent to sell the couple’s A$600,000 (£250,000) home quickly, saying he had to “get away”. On the same day he booked a luxury holiday, telling the travel agent he wanted “only the best” for his wife. A week later he was photographed with his girlfriend, Goricia Velicanski, at a five-star resort near the Great Barrier Reef.
Ms Velicanski told the inquest that she had planned to move in with Mr Campbell and had no idea he was married. They had met via an internet dating site and had been intimate from December 2003 until May 2005. Mr Campbell was also having an affair with Lynda Rogers, who told the court that he had promised to take her on a cruise to celebrate her 40th birthday if she lost 50lb. She turned 40 the day after Mrs Campbell died.
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Two months after his wife’s death Mr Campbell dumped both women, withdrew $70,000 from an account he had opened with his wife and travelled to the Philippines to meet another woman he had met on the internet. Melissa Campbell, a former nightclub singer, became his fourth wife in January last year.
Mr Campbell had emigrated with his family to Australia as a child and he had returned to Britain in the mid 1990s to join the police. While serving in Surrey he had an affair with a married colleague, June Ingram, but the relationship ended when he resigned after a complaint was made against him by a woman he had met while investigating an allegation of domestic violence, and he left Britain.
Ms Ingram said that Mr Campbell contacted her again after her divorce in 2001 and proposed over the telephone. But when she joined him in Australia he was enraged to discover she had received only $66,000 in the divorce settlement. On the night she arrived he allegedly screamed at her: “You f***ing bitch, you told me you were going to get more.” The next morning Mr Campbell took her to the airport, dumped her belongings on the pavement and drove off. She bought him a $148,000 house and a $60,000 car to appease him but a few months later he dumped her by text message. “I just wanted to please him, I loved him,” Ms Ingram told the inquest. “I feel like my heart’s been ripped out of my chest.”
Mr Campbell met Janet Fisicaro, a widow with one son, in early 2004. They kept their relationship secret before marrying nine months later. Mr Campbell’s former sister-in-law, Toni Sanderson, told the inquest that he appeared more interested in his future bride’s money than in love.
“He said she was loaded,” said MsSanderson. “I believe he said she was f***ing ugly and he was asking me whether he should sleep with her because she was promising to buy him a car.”
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David Grant, Mrs Campbell’s lawyer, said that he had heard gossip about Mr Campbell in the couple’s hometown of Deniliquin, in New South Wales. He told the inquest that people had said: “Bloody Des is always up at the club, bonking the all wealthy widows, and now he’s got Janet.”
He said that his client’s family and friends suspected she was killed for her money. “We believe he is a preda-tor who has targeted a pleasant, naive simple woman,” he told the inquest. Mr Campbell inherited $113,000 from his wife’s will and was seeking a further $120,000 from her $600,000 estate, the inquest was told. He had been called to give evidence but exercised his legal right to silence. Jacqueline Milledge, deputy state coronor, said that she believed there was enough evidence for a “reasonable prospect that a jury would convict” a known person. She said she would forward evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions.