Des Cambpell and, inset, Janet and the spot where he pushed her off the cliff. Campbell's bail was revoked and he was taken into custody last week, when the jurors began their deliberations. He now faces a possible life sentence. Janet well-off financially Janet had been left well off financially when her first husband, Frank Fisicaro, died in 1997.

Campbell was an ambulance officer who lived beyond his means and was constantly in debt. A romance sprang up after they met at Deniliquin Hospital, where Janet worked as an orderly. The Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, had said Campbell was only ever after her money and "took advantage of Janet's straightforward, loving, honest, maybe even simple nature". While Janet was besotted with Campbell, he denied to others that they were in a relationship. Campbell was only ever after her money and took advantage of Janet's straightforward, loving, honest, maybe even simple nature

Behind her back, he described Janet as "pig ugly" and carried on affairs with three other women. In September 2004, a week after they wed in secret, she changed her will to leave him almost half her estate. In October she bought them a $660,000 house in Otford, in Sydney's south, putting it in both their names. Six days after she moved to Otford, Campbell took Janet camping in the nearby Royal National Park. Janet, 49, was a novice camper and was scared of heights. But Campbell pitched their tent just metres from the 50-metre drop where she fell. Although Campbell did not give evidence at the trial, he was interviewed by police the morning after Janet's death. He said his wife disappeared after leaving the tent to go to the toilet. He used a rope to climb down a nearby gully and found her body on rocks at the base of the cliff. Broken tree branches on the headland above showed Janet made a desperate attempt to save herself.

Campbell's four-week trial heard he had been widowed only a week when he asked for a copy of Janet's will and took one of his girlfriends, Gorica Velicanski, on holiday to Townsville. Like Campbell's other lovers, Ms Velicanski had no idea he was married. She told the court that, on the Townsville trip, Campbell seemed his usual self and said nothing about anyone having fallen off a cliff. Campbell did not attend his wife's funeral and, four days after Janet was buried in Deniliquin, he proposed to Ms Velicanski. She turned him down but by June that year he was engaged to a woman named Melissa, whom he met in the Philippines after making contact through the internet. She later became his fourth wife. Mr Tedeschi argued Janet's death "had not the slightest emotional impact" on Campbell because he wanted her dead. The defence counsel, Sean Hughes, said while Campbell "is not somebody who reacts as most of us might", it did not make him a murderer.

"It is extraordinary that, in this day and age, people are still asked to make judgments about people ... whether he was grieving appropriately." Reminding the jurors that Campbell was not on trial for being a philanderer, Mr Hughes had urged them to put aside any hostility they might have felt and to examine the evidence – which did not exclude Janet having tripped and fallen. But the jury found Janet's death was no accident. Loading Campbell will face sentencing submissions on July 23.

Kim Arlington is a Herald Court Reporter.