The Kiss of the Black Widow

In 2007, Annie Trigwell died of natural causes. She was partway through serving a 17-year sentence for planning the brutal execution of her third husband. But her death leaves many questions

This piece was originally published in October 2007. I used to write prolifically about homicide - murder, manslaughter, femicide, infanticide. I have long campaigned on behalf of women who killed as a response to domestic violence, who were subsequently, unjustly, convicted of murder. I intend to write as little about the Trans Taliban in the future as possible, and re-focus on such issues.

PS: Occasionally, women kill out of sheer wickedness. The Annie Trigwell case is such an example.

---

Annie Trigwell

It was a cold, grey morning in February 1995 when private detective Barry Trigwell's colleague David Waight arrived to drive him to work. The curtains were still drawn. When Trigwell failed to answer both the door and the telephone, Waight broke in, found the gas fire on, and blood splattered on the carpet and furniture. He dialled 999. When the police arrived, they followed the trail of blood from the living-room sofa to the bath, and found the body of Barry Trigwell, dressed only in trousers, submerged in water. He had been bludgeoned to death. Parts of his scalp and fragments of his skull were splattered around the walls. It looked as though he had been attacked on the sofa and then dumped in the bath after he had died. It later transpired that he was supposed to have been shot, but the assassins' gun had failed to go off. Instead, they used a poker to do the job.

Some hours later, as Trigwell's body was removed from his home in Fowey Close, Sutton Coldfield, the telephone rang. It was Trigwell's wife Annie, calling from South Africa, where she was visiting her pregnant daughter. When the detective told her that Barry was dead, she said she would catch the next plane back. Nine days later Annie Trigwell was arrested for conspiracy to murder her husband. Police had realised that she stood to gain £400,000 from insurance. Barry, it seemed, was worth more to her dead than alive.

This is the story of the woman the British press dubbed the Black Widow. It's a tale which began in Johannesburg and ended in a hospice in Surrey a fortnight ago, when Annie Trigwell died of cancer on 1 October. It's a story that's fascinated me for two years.

In spring 2005, I travelled to Send Women's Prison in Surrey to visit Trigwell at her request. She was nine years into a 17-year sentence for murder, but had always maintained her innocence. A slender woman sat before me, with an unhealthy pallor and dark eyes circled with even darker shadows. Trigwell asked me to help prove that she had been framed.

Annie and Barry Trigwell

I'd received a letter about her from an organisation which challenges convictions of battered women who kill violent men (I'm a founder member of Justice for Women, the law reform campaign). I expected to hear the usual story of abuse, resulting in a self-defence attack. The letter read: Annie Trigwell. Age 52, white South African. Convicted for the murder of her husband, Barry, in 1996. Was given a tariff of 20, reduced to 17. Had a son, Craig, who was shot 14 years ago. She married Barry two years after Craig's death. Has a daughter, Nicolette, whom Barry ignored. Barry started drinking and beating Annie after they got married. Barry used to threaten to kill Nicolette if Annie didn't do what he wanted. On a trip to the United States he attempted to rape Nicolette. They left him at Heathrow airport and went back to South Africa.

What I would discover was a tale so incredible that if I'd read it in a crime novel I'd have criticised the plot for being far-fetched. But this is a real story, involving multiple deaths, deception, allegations of security service and Mafia involvement and, in the end, the painful death of a woman who may have been the ultimate Black Widow.

'I was framed to protect some dangerous people back home,' said Trigwell, as I took out my notebook. 'How could I have killed him when I was 6,000 miles away?'

A private detective, Barry Trigwell headed up the Birmingham franchise of a private investigation firm, Nationwide Investigations. He regularly travelled to South Africa and, in 1993, he met Ethel Anne Brooks, known as Annie, a businesswoman dealing in medical supplies. The following year they married in Birmingham - his fourth marriage and her third.

Barry was not a particularly attractive man, but he had charisma. 'He looked like a cross between Rod Steiger and Edward G Robinson,' said former colleague John Clarke. 'Like a gangster.' Known as Barry the Bastard, he'd made a lot of enemies and had once been charged with murder. When Barry was found bludgeoned to death, police figured that his killer could be 'one of 50 people'.

Barry Trigwell

'I only discovered after we married that Barry had served time for firearms and kidnapping,' said Trigwell. 'I realise now I effectively married a gangster.'

When Trigwell first met her husband she told him she needed to transfer a 'very large' amount of money and wanted him to make sure it went smoothly. Soon he was smitten with this attractive woman who drove a Porsche and was brimming with self-confidence.

Barry's father, Len, recalled meeting Trigwell for the first time. 'I took against her as soon as I clapped eyes on her,' he said. 'Barry was besotted, though, and would not hear a word against Annie.' According to Len, several people tried to persuade Barry to get out of the relationship, including Annie's own mother. 'He was hard in business,' said Len, 'but gullible with women.'

At the time of his death, Barry was investigating drug money laundering and monitoring the import of arms in the Seychelles. He held a second passport in a different name so he could infiltrate gangs in other countries and provide intelligence about dissidents and rebels. 'Barry was exceptionally good at his job,' said Clarke. 'He could make money out of anyone and anything. And he was ruthless in business.'

One man who knew Barry through business told me that he was connected with at least one contract killing in the Eighties. He was investigated by Special Branch officers who failed to pin anything substantial on him.

'The South African police knew that a contract had been taken out on Barry two years before his death and did nothing,' Trigwell told me, pulling at her sweatshirt and crossing and uncrossing her ankles in the prison visiting room. 'I was framed, and the police here knew that, too.' Barry, she told me, 'had his finger in a number of dodgy pies'.

The marriage was in trouble almost from the beginning. Months before he died, Barry asked a colleague to bug his landline when he became convinced that his wife was having an affair during her trips to South Africa. He told his sister Julie that he was trying to cut Trigwell out of his finances, so that she would not benefit if he died before her. Barry discovered that his wife was indeed involved with another man - a South African called Jan Burgher. He also found, through banking contacts, that Trigwell had been paying a large life insurance policy on Burgher for some time.

Ethel Anne Trigwell was born in 1953 in Bethlehem, South Africa, into a typical white South African community. The family home was salubrious and set in generous grounds, and the family employed a number of black servants. Described by one family friend as a 'well-behaved, conformist child', Annie did well academically and became an accountant.

When she was 20 she married Alan Paton. One year later, shortly before their son Craig was born, Paton lost a leg in a motorbike accident. 'After that, Alan became depressed and began drinking heavily. He started to beat and abuse me,' Annie told me when we met. 'He hardly saw Craig.' According to Annie, Paton was eventually detained under the Mental Health Act in a psychiatric hospital and later died from a perforated ulcer when Craig was 11. But others have told me that Paton died when Craig was a baby, from a drugs overdose.

Annie remarried when Craig was three. Ron Brooks, with whom she had a daughter, Nicolette, was also violent, according to Annie. She told me that Ron never bonded with Craig, and favoured Nicolette over her son. They soon split, leaving Annie to raise her children alone.

Annie Trigwell in South Africa

In 1992, the year before Annie met Barry Trigwell, Craig died. He was a few months short of his 21st birthday, when he would have inherited a large sum of money, from insurance pay-outs or from his father's estate. Annie received an undisclosed amount from Craig's trust fund after his death, but it wasn't until her conviction for Barry's murder that the South African police began to wonder if she was involved. Craig died from two gunshot wounds to the head. A pathology report later revealed that either of the two wounds would have killed him instantly.

On the night her son was shot, Annie stayed with friends, as Craig and Nicolette were going out for the evening. Annie's version of the events was as follows: 'I was called by Nicolette, who was hysterical, early the following morning. She told me Craig had been shot and was lying in a pool of blood. I ran into the house and then into the bedroom where Craig was. There was blood everywhere. That is the moment my life changed forever...'

No one has ever been arrested for Craig's murder. However, Barry's father, Len, told me that Barry offered to investigate Craig's death, but that Annie was 'dead against it'.

After marrying Barry, Annie Trigwell moved with him to Sutton Coldfield, but would return to South Africa every few weeks on the pretext of seeing her pregnant daughter. In fact, she was carrying on her affair with Jan Burgher.

Renting Trigwell's home in Johannesburg was a man called Alex Mitri, a nightclub owner involved with the South African Mafia, and his wife Linda, a former Penthouse Pet and Miss Johannesburg who ran a brothel in the city. Linda was a crucial witness in the case against Trigwell, as she testified that during one of Trigwell's visits to South Africa, she overheard her talking to Mitri about killing Barry. According to Linda, Trigwell offered Mitri a fee of £15,000, plus £1,000 each for the two hitmen Mitri would have to hire to carry out the job.

Paul Ras and Loren Sundkvist were also involved in the South African criminal underworld and known to the police. Mitri hired them to do the job on Barry, and arranged for them to fly to the UK for a reconnaissance mission in late January 1995. They returned complaining that they couldn't lure Barry out of his home. Mitri told them to do an 'inside job' and that he'd ask Trigwell to give them a house key.

Sundkvist

On 1 February, six days before Barry was murdered, his wife went to the Clover Hotel, a mile from their home, and left a package for Sundkvist. The hotel manager, Tim Higgs - already suspicious of his two guests' nervous behaviour - decided to open the package in front of a colleague. He noted the contents: £300 in cash, plus a freshly cut key with a Mister Minit tag attached. Trigwell claimed she was delivering the package for Mitri as a favour, and that she had no idea of its contents.

On 6 February, Annie Trigwell boarded the 8pm flight to South Africa. The following evening, Barry left his office at 5pm and headed for his local curry house, where he ordered a chicken biriani and three pints of lager, before taking a taxi home at 6.30pm. At 11pm, a neighbour noticed there were no lights on in the house. By then, Barry was dead and the hitmen already on their way to Heathrow. They had let themselves in with the key provided by Trigwell. On the night Barry was murdered, Trigwell had been eating steak with Burgher in a Johannesburg restaurant. On her arrest, she handed the receipt for the meal to the police.

But the evidence against Trigwell and the hitmen was overwhelming. Days before Barry died, he told his sister Julie that he had received strange phone calls from two men with South African accents who tried to persuade him to meet them. His suspicions were aroused because he never gave out his home phone number. Dialling 1471, he wrote down the number and asked his sister to give it to the police, 'should anything happen to me'. It was the number of the Clover Hotel. When detectives visited, they were told about two South African guests who had spent a lot of time watching television and playing pool. Higgs remembered the hitmen well. 'They were shifty characters,' he said. 'They told so many tall stories I can't remember which one was the most ridiculous.'

The Avis car that Ras and Sundkvist had hired from South Africa before their trip was seen by a witness in Barry's street at the time of the murder. After the two escaped to South Africa, the vehicle was traced to London. Forensic examiners discovered a sample of hair and scalp on the back seat that matched Barry Trigwell's DNA. It also transpired that a woman calling herself Anne had paid in advance for the car in Johannesburg. The woman in the Avis office in South Africa picked Trigwell out of an identity parade.

In March, Trigwell was charged with conspiracy to murder. Mitri, Ras and Sundkvist were arrested in South Africa. Weeks later, the three had their charges withdrawn at committal stage after Linda Mitri failed to appear to give evidence against them.

On 25 July 1996, Trigwell was found guilty of her husband's murder (the charge stepped up from conspiracy to murder) by a unanimous verdict. She was sentenced to life imprisonment at Birmingham Crown Court with the order that she must serve a minimum of 20 years. This was later reduced to 17 on appeal.

In the meantime, pressure built on the South African authorities to extradite the two hitmen. During Trigwell's trial, Ras and Sundkvist were presumed guilty in their absence. Had there been any doubt, Trigwell could not have been convicted.

Almost three years later, in February 1999, Ras and Sundkvist were rearrested in Johannesburg and convicted for unrelated crimes. They could not now be extradited to the UK to stand trial for the Trigwell murder until they had served their sentences in South Africa. The following month, with Alex Mitri still on the run, Linda Mitri died in a mysterious car accident in Durban. She had never returned to Johannesburg since giving evidence against Trigwell. Following that trial, Linda feared that there was a contract on her life. But as one South African police officer told me, 'Because police who attended the scene did not know she was under police protection, they did not examine the crash as a possible case of homicide.'

Linda Mitri

In October 2003, two West Midlands police officers travelled to Johannesburg to bring the hitmen back to the UK. As the convoy with the suspects headed to the airport, one of the cars crashed, killing West Midlands officer Robert Ling (the South African police driver was later convicted of culpable homicide). One officer I spoke to said he believed the crash was no accident, but an attempt to spring Sundkvist to prevent him testifying against Mitri. Ras and Sundkvist were extradited the following day, and on 25 July 2003 were found guilty of murdering Barry Trigwell. They were jailed for life.

In April [2007], I was surprised to discover that Annie Trigwell had been released from prison on compassionate grounds, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I tracked her down in a Surrey hospice and called her. She told me she had only 'months' to live. I asked if we could meet, and that I had long wanted to write her story. This case had fascinated me since I first met her. I've met some dangerous characters through my work campaigning against sexual violence, and in researching newspaper articles on rape, murder and child abuse. I had never experienced the hairs standing up on the back of my neck, and a strong desire to bolt, as I did on meeting Trigwell. The more I looked into the case, the stronger the urge became to find out if this woman had killed her own son for money and discarded her husbands to subsidise her affluent lifestyle.

'Bring your tape recorder,' she told me. 'I will tell you everything.' But would she confess to any crimes, or simply repeat her assertion that she has been framed? 'Just bring your recorder,' she croaked, tiring already. 'I want to put the record straight.' Trigwell asked me to bring her some crime novels to read, as well. Patricia Cornwell is her favourite.

'Whatever comes out of her mouth is a pack of lies,' Julie Armener, Barry Trigwell's sister told me. 'She was one of the most manipulative, scheming women I have ever met.'

At the hospice, I learnt from the staff that Trigwell had requested a counsellor sit in with us during our interview. I was then greeted by the hospice manager and told that the Home Office had refused my visit. I later learnt that Trigwell had been threatened with being sent back to prison if she spoke to me, despite the fact that she could barely walk, was in chronic pain, and incontinent.

At the end of August, I travelled to Rome to meet Giovanni Di Stefano, the lawyer who represented Trigwell in her attempt to secure a second appeal against her murder conviction. Di Stefano has previously represented the road-rage killer Kenneth Noye and Harold Shipman, and was one of Saddam Hussein's legal team. Trigwell gave me permission to look at the case papers held by Di Stefano, and I spent the morning reading about a plot which would hardly go down in history as the perfect murder. It was more like a lesson in how not to bump someone off. The killers left behind a trial of forensic, eyewitness and other material evidence. It is, to my eye, a crystal-clear case of 'guilty' all round. Unless, of course, Trigwell has been spectacularly framed.

There were more than 60 witnesses and witness statements for the prosecution, and only one, other than Trigwell herself, for the defence - Nicolette, Trigwell's daughter.

'I will tell you who killed Barry,' said the flash Di Stefano, reeking of expensive aftershave. 'The security services, not Annie.'

Giovanni Di Stefano

This is a rumour started by Trigwell after her arrest, and arising from the work undertaken by Barry and his colleagues for the Seychelles government in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Barry's team of investigators were providing intelligence to the government on dissidents and, as a result, became involved with mercenaries and murderers.

'Barry infiltrated the dissidents, the ones who were looking to overthrow the regime,' says Ian Withers, who worked with Barry for seven years, 'so he would know when explosives were coming into the country, and who was planning to hit the government.' The evidence that the British security services were somehow targeting Barry as a result of this operation was discredited in court.

Di Stefano called Trigwell at her hospice, putting on the speakerphone so we could have a three-way conversation. 'Annikins, Annikins,' said Di Stefano, 'how are you going to seduce me like you promised you would if you don't get better?'

He warned Trigwell not to travel to South Africa, 'because you are likely to be arrested for two more murders if you do, and we don't need that shit'. Di Stefano was referring to the fact that police in South Africa may wish to question Trigwell over the deaths of her first husband Alan and their son Craig. Di Stefano told Trigwell he believed her innocence. 'Thank you Giovanni,' Trigwell croaked. 'Will you come to see me soon?'

'I have never met a more sexually predatory woman in my life,' Di Stefano told me at the end of the conversation. 'She could eat men for breakfast.'

Just months after being jailed, Trigwell hatched an escape plot. She had an affair with a prison officer and it was only when she offered him £50,000 that he decided to report her. Later, letters between the two were discovered by another officer. One, from Trigwell, read, 'Your hands caress my every curve, sending sensations through every nerve.'

Weeks later, I called Trigwell again, but was told by the nurse that she was too ill to talk. The next day, I heard that Trigwell had died. Len Trigwell, who had also been ill, told me that news of her death had cheered him up enormously. 'That woman was pure evil, through and through,' he said.

Does Annie Trigwell's death mark the end? Perhaps, but Ras and Sundkvist are still in prison in Britain and Mitri is still at large. There are people alive who know the full story of Annie Trigwell's life, and one day they may decide to tell.