7 Jul 2014

Felicity Drumm - former wife of murderer Malcolm Webster

From Nine To Noon, 9:35 am on 7 July 2014

Auckland nurse Felicity Drumm, who was married to murderer Malcolm Webster, has told Nine To Noon a new tv series does not capture the charm he used to dupe women.

Felicity Drumm and Malcolm Webster on their wedding day. Photo: supplied.

Ms Drumm said it was his charming and fun side that enabled him to dupe a series of intelligent, independent women.

Webster is currently serving a life sentence after being convicted of killing his first wife, Claire Morris and the attempted murder of Ms Drumm, his second.

The events have been adapted for the small screen by British television channel ITV in The Widower, which now is screening on TV One in New Zealand.

Listen to Kathryn Ryan's interview with Felicity Drumm

Webster drugged and killed Ms Morris in a staged car crash in Scotland in 1994.

He then married Ms Drumm in Auckland and began drugging her, with the plan of killing her in a car fire and moving back to the UK with their young son and the proceeds of several life insurance policies he had taken out on her.

Ms Drumm's family found out the truth about Webster's intentions before he was able to kill her, and he fled New Zealand.

Ms Drumm said it was an interesting experience watching the dramatisation of such a significant part of her life. But she believed the character of Webster came across as far more unlikeable than he actually was.

She said he was good company, extroverted and fun.

She told Nine to Noon that Webster made duping women his life's work. He studied their interests and ensured he had things in common with the women he pursued, with the intent of taking their money.

She said Webster drugged her over several years, and doctors had struggled to find out what was wrong with her. At one point she told a neurologist that her food had an acrid, bitter taste as if someone had crushed pills and put it in her food.

It was only later that she realised this was the case.

She said after Webster fled the country, New Zealand police tried for many years to get Scottish police to arrest him.

But it was only when her sister, Jane Drumm, went directly to a chief superintendent in the UK that action was taken – and he was arrested as he was preparing to marry a third woman in Scotland.

Webster was convicted in 2011 of the murder of Ms Morris and the attempted murder of Ms Drumm. It was the second-longest criminal trial for a single defendant in Scotland's history.