Australian ex-cop jailed for pushing wife off cliff

SYDNEY - A former police officer in Australia who murdered his wife by pushing her off a cliff was Friday jailed for 33 years.

Des Campbell, 52, who murdered his wife Janet, 49, by pushing her off a cliff, had married her only for her money, the prosecutor told the Supreme Court, adding that Janet had been left well off when her first husband died.

Campbell took her camping in the Royal National Park in Sydney six months after they wed, and just before nightfall Janet fell to her death from a 50-metre cliff near their campsite, the court was told.

Campbell had secretly carried on affairs with other women during his relationship with Janet. He later did not even attend her funeral, and booked a holiday with one of his girlfriends the week after she plunged to her death.

“There can be no doubt that the circumstances under which Janet Campbell met her death demonstrate the offender’s sustained callousness towards her for nothing more than monetary gain,” sentencing judge Megan Latham was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.

The accused met his wife in Deniliquin town, 750 km from Sydney, where Janet worked as a hospital orderly. Campbell, who had previously been a policeman in Victoria and England, was working as a paramedic.