Otford cliff murder: Des Campbell's dark past revealed

By Kim Arlington and Tom Reilly
Updated November 6 2012 - 12:20am, first published May 18 2010 - 11:11am
Des Campbell in his Victoria Police uniform, and, right, in June 1995 during his time serving with Surrey police in England.
Des Campbell in his Victoria Police uniform, and, right, in June 1995 during his time serving with Surrey police in England.
Murder victim Janet Campbell was buried with her first husband, Frank Fisicaro, at Deniliquin Cemetery (below).
Murder victim Janet Campbell was buried with her first husband, Frank Fisicaro, at Deniliquin Cemetery (below).
Des Campbell
Des Campbell

It was the murder trial likened by the defence to a soap opera. Des Campbell was cast in all the villains' roles: liar, swindler, womaniser, gold-digger, a cold-hearted killer who pushed his wife off a cliff. And the twist was that he used to be a police detective.The Supreme Court jury that yesterday found Campbell guilty of murdering his wife, Janet, was not told he spent nine years with Victoria Police. He left the force in 1994 with a series of disciplinary matters looming and having just been handed a suspended two-month jail term for assault.

  • Golddiggers blatant indifference to his wife's death was ultimately his undoing.
  • Des Campbell found guilty of murder Accused of fraud and perjury over an insurance scam, he was acquitted at trial. But he later confessed to wide-scale corruption, telling a Melbourne newspaper his police service was "one long, endless roller-coaster of lies, fabrication of evidence, perjury, stealing and scams"."I was just scum," he said. "I became like the people I was arresting."Campbell moved to England and served three years with the Surrey police, resigning after a woman he met during a domestic violence investigation accused him of sexual assault.The policeman became a paramedic and, while stationed in Deniliquin, met a well-off widow, Janet Fisicaro.Using a combination of charm and deceit, Campbell won her heart, took her money and surreptitiously carried on affairs with three other women.An unseen player in the sordid soap opera, Campbell's fourth wife, Melissa, was not in court when he was convicted of murdering her predecessor. Campbell and Melissa had met in the Philippines a month after Janet's funeral.Last night she was isolated in her Riverina home, protecting the two preschool-age children she has with Campbell, unwilling to discuss his betrayal of her.She discovered the unsavoury aspects of his earlier life only when reading about the trial. A friend, who asked not to be named, described Melissa as another of Campbell's victims."If she had known what he was like, about all the things he had done to other women and his other girlfriends, she would never have fallen in love with him," she said."Melissa has not been in touch with Des for three or four weeks and I know she does not want to be with him any more. She is a victim of Des - he lied to her and she is upset about being with him. But she is shocked by the court's decision; it is hard for her to think he could do something like this."At his trial, Campbell's three lovers gave evidence, as did Campbell's former fiancee, June Ingham. She dissolved in tears when describing how he dumped her by text message in 2002 after she gave him $64,000 for a sports car and a house.The defence counsel, Sean Hughes, questioned whether this "parade of broken hearts" filled the gaps in the evidence, but it all went to proving the Crown case - that Campbell never loved Janet, was only after her money and had pushed her off the cliff.On March 24, 2005, six months after they secretly wed, the Campbells went camping in the Royal National Park. Janet, 49, fell to her death from a 50m cliff beside their campsite. Campbell told police she disappeared after leaving their tent "for a pee". But the jury rejected his claim the death was accidental.Deliberating since May 10, the jurors were deadlocked. An hour after Justice Megan Latham told them they could return a majority 11-1 decision, they convicted Campbell, 52.The verdict brought some comfort for Janet's family, who always suspected foul play and waited five years for justice. They had tried to warn Janet about Campbell but she "couldn't be talked around - she was in love", her brother, Kevin Neander, said.Campbell planned the murder and "obviously had it in the back of his mind all along", he said. "The morning Campbell took (Janet) camping, Mum said, 'Something's going to happen - he'll push her off a cliff'."Even before the verdict, the future of the latest marriage was in doubt. Speaking at the family's home in Barham, Melissa Campbell said: "I do not know what will happen. It is hard to read things in the paper which you don't know of. I have children with this man and I have to think of them."Campbell faces the possibility of life in jail. His sentencing begins on July 23.
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