“Consistent with a deliberate attempt to kill” says expert at Webster trial

A reconstruction expert today said a fatal smash which claimed the life of a North-east nurse was “consistent with a deliberate attempt to kill”.

Stephen Jowitt, who works for the same firm that reconstructed the crash which killed Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, today appeared as an expert witness during the trial of murder-accused Malcolm Webster.

Mr Jowitt told jurors at the High Court in Glasgow he used witness statements to reconstruct the crash that killed Claire Morris, on the Auchenhuive to Tarves road in May 1994.

These included accounts by the police, eye-witnesses of the aftermath of the collision and a statement given by Webster.

Webster is on trial accused of drugging his first wife Claire, crashing their car on purpose and torching the vehicle with her inside.

Mr Jowitt, who is a trained engineer with experience of investigating fatal crashes involving fire, said he had visited the scene in September to reconstruct the crash.
He was asked by the Crown to determine whether the physical characteristics of the incident were consistent with the account given by Webster, that it was a normal accident, or whether it was a staged event.

Advocate depute Derek Ogg read from the conclusions of Mr Jowitt’s report: “It is highly likely that the vehicle was steered down the slope into the wooded area from a relatively low speed.

“Accordingly the physical evidence fits entirely with the contention that this was a staged event.
“It is wholly unlikely that the vehicle caught fire as a consequence of any impact damage generated in the incident.
“If this was an impact-related fire the initiation of combustion would have been evident to an outside observer immediately after the impact. Accordingly it is my opinion that the fire was deliberately set.

“The extent to which the vehicle burned is indicative of an enormous fuel load.

“The vehicle would not have burned to this extent simply as a result of fuel loss stemming from a simple low energy accident. There must have been some external accelerant involved to have caused the nature and extent of the fire shown.

“There was nothing to physically prevent Mrs Webster from being able to get out of the vehicle if she was capable of consciousness at the start of the incident. Thus, if the person deliberately starting the fire was aware that Mrs Webster was in the vehicle at the time, the event is consistent with a deliberate attempt to kill her whilst she was somehow incapacitated within the vehicle.”

Mr Jowitt emphasised to jurors the last thing he wanted was for them to go away from the court thinking they had heard what actually happened. He said: “What I can show you is a reconstruction of what may have happened.”