Man denies Scottish and New Zealand wives murder plots

Malcolm Webster's first wife Claire died back in 1994

A man has gone on trial charged with murdering his first wife and trying to kill his second as part of a fraudulent plot to make money.

Malcolm Webster, of Guildford, Surrey, denies murdering Claire Morris in Aberdeenshire in 1994 and attempting to murder Felicity Drumm in New Zealand.

It is alleged Mr Webster, 51, drugged his first wife, put her in a car, drove it off the road and set fire to it.

The trial at the High Court in Glasgow is expected to last about four months.

Mr Webster stands accused of fraudulently obtaining more than £200,000 after cashing in a series of insurance policies following the death of his first wife, who was from Oldmeldrum.

Scene visit

He is further charged with deliberately crashing his car in Auckland in February 1999, in a bid to kill his second wife while she was a passenger.

Mr Webster did so as part of an attempt to fraudulently obtain hundreds of thousands of pounds in separate insurance payouts, it is alleged.

It is also alleged he intended to bigamously marry a third woman, Simone Banarjee, from Oban, Argyll, to gain access to her estate and told her he was terminally ill with leukaemia when he was actually in good health.

The jurors are expected to visit the site where Mr Webster is alleged to have killed his first wife, the first day of the trial heard.

The jury was told they are scheduled to travel up to Aberdeen on 22 February, stay overnight in a hotel and then visit the Auchenhuive to Tarves Road, at Kingoodie in Aberdeenshire, the next day.

The trial, before Lord Bannatyne, continues.