The adulterer, his wife, and the tent pitched too close to a cliff

She was a wealthy widow; he was a former English police officer with a harem of girlfriends and a taste for sports cars and French champagne. Des Campbell took his third wife, Janet, on a camping holiday, and pitched their tent a few feet from a cliff edge. Her body was found at the bottom.

Australian-born Mr Campbell, who left the Surrey force in disgrace in 1997, told police his wife fell over the 120ft cliff after she went outside at dusk to answer a call of nature. He did not attend her funeral and, a week later, flew to Queensland for a holiday with one of at least three other women he was seeing at the time.

An inquest in Sydney into Mrs Campbell's death has heard from several former girlfriends, including a British policewoman who flew from the UK to testify. They told of being seduced by the "charming" and "manipulative" 48-year-old, who swindled them out of tens of thousands of dollars.

Mr Campbell married Janet Fisicaro in secret. Six months later, he took her on a trip to the Royal National Park, south of Sydney. He was an experienced camper. She had never been camping before.

A few days after her death in 2005, he inquired about her will and made plans to sell their home. Soon afterwards he withdrew A$70,000 (£30,000) from a mortgage account, and travelled to the Philippines to bring back a woman he had met through an internet dating service. That woman is now his fourth wife, and they have two children.

A former friend, Adam Wilson, said Mr Campbell had boasted of "shagging sluts" and preying on vulnerable, well-off women. Mr Campbell told his brother's wife that Mrs Fisicaro was a "fat, ugly, dumb bitch" who was stalking him. But he also bragged that she was "filthy rich" after inheriting her late husband's estate, worth about A$1m.

Mr Campbell left the Surrey force and returned to Australia after a woman in England accused him of sexually assaulting her. He had met her while investigating a domestic violence complaint, and took her out on a date.

June Ingram, who worked with him in Surrey, told Glebe coroner's court that he proposed to her over the phone in 2001. She moved to Melbourne to be with him, but he was "enraged" to learn she had received only $66,000 in her divorce settlement. To placate him, she bought him a car, and a house in southern New South Wales.

Ms Ingram said Mr Campbell sold the house while she was overseas, and ended their relationship by text message in 2002.

Mr Campbell then began seeing Mrs Fisicaro, described by her family lawyer as "a pleasant, naive but simple woman". He was working as an ambulance officer. He had left the Australian Army and Victorian police force after disciplinary investigations.

After marrying Janet in secret, he persuaded her to move to Otford, near the Royal National Park, and to buy them a house.

The girlfriend he took to Queensland, Gorica Velicanski, said she had been planning to move in with Mr Campbell.

She had no idea he was married. Nor did another woman, Lynda Rogers, whom he promised to take on a cruise if she lost 50lb.

All of Mr Campbell's women were attractive, middle-aged blondes. All were widowed or divorced.

The inquest continues.