Tale of the wicked widow who wanted it all

With her immaculately coiffed copper-coloured hair, designer jeans and obvious cosmetic surgery, Jamila M’Barek was every inch the high-class Riviera call-girl.

Two-and-a-half years on remand had done nothing to break her spirit, and the late earl’s widow smirked and pouted her immaculately manicured way through her trial for his murder.

She twirled her hair girlishly as she gave evidence, cocking her head to one side as she told – rather languidly, as if the whole judicial process was too much of a bore to bother with — of her love for “le comte de Shaftesbury”, though her professions of conjugal devotion often trailed off into a mumbled “etcetera etcetera”.