Husband sensed police would call

DES Campbell seemed to know that, one day, the police would come knocking.

DES Campbell seemed to know that, one day, the police would come knocking.

Before his wife Janet fell from a Sydney cliff to her death during a camping trip in March 2005, Mr Campbell, who was involved with at least three other women at the time, warned them that if police ever asked, they should deny that they knew him.

As it turned out, police did come knocking. From the time they were called to the scene of Campbell's fatal fall in the Royal National Park, in the city's south, the investigating officers thought the circumstances of her death were very suspicious.

"I have no doubt that he was trying to hide something," Detective Frank Sanvitale told the inquest into Campbell's death yesterday. "I believe there was foul play."

Mr Campbell has been named as the "only person of interest" at the inquest at Glebe Coroners Court.

Apart from a brief interview with police in the hours after his wife's death, the ex-soldier and confessed corrupt former policeman has refused to co-operate further with investigations into Campbell's fatal plunge.

He initially told police his wife had fallen off the cliff after leaving their tent, which was pitched just 5m from the clifftop, to go to the toilet.

Mr Campbell had married the 49-year-old in a secret ceremony in September 2004. Unbeknown to the new Mrs Campbell, her husband had at least three other lovers at the same time.

Lynda Rodgers, who had first gone out with Mr Campbell in the 1980s when she was 18 and he was 26, said their relationship had been rekindled when she contacted him in May 2004 after seeing his profile on a school friend's website.

In August of that year - one month before Mr Campbell married Janet - Ms Rodgers said she shared a romantic weekend in Melbourne with Mr Campbell, during which he told her: "If anybody ever asks if you know me ... you are to deny that you ever knew me."

Ms Rodgers, who was married at the time of her affair with Mr Campbell, told the court that he had promised to take her on a cruise ship holiday for her 40th birthday "if I lost 25kg".

Ms Rodgers turned 40 on March 25, 2005 - the day after Mrs Campbell died.

Two weeks later, on April 8 - after Mr Campbell had returned from a Queensland holiday with another lover, Gorica Velicanski - he resumed contact with Ms Rodgers, sending her a text message that read: "I'd like to be sipping champers naked in bed with you, and with you also naked, sitting on me."

Both Ms Rodgers and Ms Velicanski said they had no idea that Mr Campbell was married until after his wife's death.

Another of Mr Campbell's former girlfriends, June Ingham, told the inquest that Mr Campbell had swindled more than $200,000 from her after he invited her to move from England to live with him in 2001.

The inquest continues.