Jamila M'Barek

She later worked for an escort agency on the French Riviera and was looking for a permanent arrangement with one of her wealthy clients after her recent divorce when, under the name 'Sarah', she met the twice-divorced Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, in late 2001.

[2][5][10] Catherine Gurtler, a former madam from Paris who sent M'Barek to Lord Shaftesbury, later testified that she had asked for rich clients and she "saw plenty of big-name celebrities during her days working for the agency".

[5] To the disappointment of his family, he became infatuated with M'Barek, buying her a flat in Cannes for £500,000 (£1,030,000 in present-day terms)[12] and transferring other properties into her name after they married.

[14] By April 2004, Lord Shaftesbury had started a new relationship with Nadia Orche, a young mother of two children who has been described as a "club hostess from Cannes" and a "Moroccan prostitute".

By that time, he had given her a windmill in the Gers region of southwestern France, the €700,000 duplex in a villa in Cannes, which included staff, a car, and a monthly allowance, ranging between €7,500 and €10,000.

[17] In February 2005, Lady Shaftesbury was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she had an emotional breakdown and began confessing to her involvement in her husband's death.

[17] On 7 April 2005, a body in an advanced state of decomposition was discovered by the French authorities in a valley at Théoule-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes, on the outskirts of Cannes.

[17] Fearing that her Arab ancestry might alienate the jury, the defendant demanded to be referred to by the titles she had gained when she married Shaftesbury, much to the dismay of his family.

[24] After marrying Lord Shaftesbury, she faced "looming financial disaster" in the event of a divorce and set out "consciously and without constraint, to accomplish his assassination".

[24] Refusing to be dissuaded from her desired inheritance, she continued to maintain her belief throughout the trial that she was entitled to a share of her late husband's £6 million fortune, including the family estate at Wimborne St Giles.

[1][25]—Jamila M'BarekThe French authorities suspected there had been a conspiracy to murder Shaftesbury when they discovered that his widow transferred €150,000 into her brother's bank account the week following her husband's disappearance.

The prosecution viewed this as payment for services rendered, although Lady Shaftesbury testified that she had given her brother the money in order for him to buy a house for their ailing mother.

Lady Shaftesbury, who claimed to be "extremely close" to Prince Albert II of Monaco, named two American actors, George Clooney and Bruce Willis, as well as Swedish former tennis player Björn Borg as her former clients.

[28] Lady Shaftesbury vowed revenge, additionally stating, "I was always loyal to the men who were close to me, but they did not want to know me when I was facing the biggest trial of my life.

[11] Lady Shaftesbury added that her arguments with her husband had nothing to do with money, but rather arose as a result of his excessive sexual demands, reportedly brought on by injections of testosterone.

[11] The strongest evidence presented by the prosecution was a secretly recorded telephone conversation between the defendant and her sister, Naima, in which Jamila discussed £100,000 (€150,000) paid to her brother, allegedly his fee for contract killing.