Malcolm Webster case: Convicted wife killer has burial bid rejected
An attempt by a husband to be buried alongside the wife he was convicted of murdering has been rejected.
Malcolm Webster, 54, originally from Surrey, was jailed for a minimum of 30 years for murdering Claire Morris in a car crash in Aberdeenshire in 1994.
He was also convicted of staging a similar attempt to murder his second wife in New Zealand.
Aberdeenshire Council said he had no right to be buried in the same plot as Ms Morris.
An Aberdeenshire Council spokeswoman said: "The murder conviction against Malcolm Webster has rendered his contract with the council, as relating to the lair at Tarves, void.
"As such, he would have no right to be buried in the same lair as Claire Morris.
"We are monitoring the ongoing appeal proceedings."
Webster's appeal against his conviction is currently being considered by judges.
The council last year gave Ms Morris's family permission to remove the headstone at her grave, as it referred to a "dear wife" and displayed her married name.
Webster was found guilty in 2011 of murdering Ms Morris, 32, who was originally from Kent, in a faked car crash.
The jury at the High Court in Glasgow accepted that he set fire to the vehicle with his unconscious wife inside it, before later receiving an insurance payout.
The appeal judges will issue their ruling, in writing, at a later date.