Source: www.ntnews.com.au
A KILLER paramedic was offered a job and worked for St John Ambulance in Darwin after he murdered his wife by pushing her off a cliff.
Des Campbell was sentenced in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Friday to a minimum of 24 years in jail after he was found guilty by a jury of murdering Janet Campbell in 2005.
Earlier this year Campbell began working as a remote paramedic for St John. His past was discovered by contract and sales manager Tracey Watts when she decided to Google his name. She was shocked by her discovery. “Google is a wonderful thing,” Ms Watts said “I found lots of articles including photos.”
Campbell was hauled into the human resource manager’s office and was on a plane out of Darwin the next day. The former police officer and paramedic was hired through a recruitment agency which conducted a Federal Police check on Campbell.
Ms Watts said no convictions turned up on the police check because Campbell had not yet been convicted of his wife’s murder. But Campbell had been charged with his wife’s murder on September 8, 2009, a few months before he was offered the job in Darwin. St John decided not to go ahead with his contract, even though Ms Watts said his police check came back clear. “As we pointed out to Des, even people under suspicion we can’t hire because we have a duty of care to our clients and staff who work remotely,’ Ms Watts said.
In sentencing Campbell to a maximum of 33 years, Justice Megan Latham referred to his “sustained callousness” towards his wife, who was killed “for nothing more than monetary gain”. Evidence was that Campbell received about $340,000 after his wife’s death.