Camb claimed that the two had engaged in consensual sex and that she had died of an apparent sudden illness; he had then panicked and thrown her body out of the porthole.

The Gibson case attracted widespread attention at the time, drawing parallels with film noir and Agatha Christie novels.

Even British Prime Minister Winston Churchill commented on the outcome of the case, stating his regret that the punishment of Camb had been commuted to a lesser sentence.

Eileen Isabella Ronnie 'Gay' Gibson[3] was a 21-year-old actress who was travelling back to England on the Union-Castle Line ship MV Durban Castle in October 1947.

[11][12] Later, the officer in command of the ship, Captain Patey, interviewed Camb, who initially denied any involvement in Gibson's disappearance.

[13] At the time, Durban Castle was 90 miles (140 km) off the west coast of Africa (specifically what was then Portuguese Guinea, now Guinea-Bissau), heading north.

[7] He also contacted the Union-Castle Line offices in London asking for the ship to be met by police when it arrived in Southampton due to "complications.

"[8] When Durban Castle docked at Cowes Roads, officers from the Southampton City Police were waiting to question Camb, who had been confined to his cabin by the ship's crew.

[12] On Monday 27 October 1947, the Southern Daily Echo reported that Camb had been remanded in custody and charged with "murder on the high seas.

"[20] Camb's trial in Winchester was an unusual one, since it was labelled by some as the first case in English law whereby a prosecution was sought without a victim's body.

[21][note 5][22] The case also gained some interest due to it mirroring a plot of a crime novel; Richard Latto described the story as having all the hallmarks of an Agatha Christie piece: "a young actress, a dashing steward, romance and a suspicious death on the high seas.

[27] This prompted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to comment that, "The House of Commons has, by its vote, saved the life of the brutal lascivious murderer who thrust the poor girl he had raped and assaulted through a porthole of the ship to the sharks.

The Finest Type of English Womanhood by Rachael Heath uses the Porthole Murder as a backstory to her novel, detailing the lives of Gibson and her fictional friend, Laura Trelling.

[38] The proposal of Gibson being ill was put to her mother during Camb's trial, but she flatly denied that her daughter was in ill-health.