Former policeman Des Campbell has been jailed for at least 24
years for murdering his new wife by pushing her off a cliff.
In the NSW Supreme Court today Justice Megan Latham set a
maximum of 33 years for 52-year-old Campbell.
In May, a jury found him guilty of murdering Janet Campbell,
49, during a camping trip in the Royal National park, south
of Sydney, on March 24, 2005.
The then paramedic had claimed she accidentally fell off the
50-metre cliff after leaving their tent to go to the toilet.
But the crown contended he murdered his besotted wife as he
had only been interested in her money.
Justice Latham said that while the level of Campbell's
culpability was of a "high order" it was not in the category
which attracted a life penalty.
But, she said, there was no doubt the circumstances in which
Janet Campbell met her death "demonstrate the defendant's
sustained callousness towards her for monetary gain".
Campbell, dressed in prison greens, showed no emotion at the
sentence, which was handed down in a packed courtroom where
many members of the public had to stand and was filmed.
She concluded that Campbell had begun planning the murder in
December 2004 and noted he chose the "most sheer and
prominent cliff on that coastline" to kill her.
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