10th Earl of Shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley-Cooper (1938-2004)

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, married three times and had targeted wife number four before he was murdered - very possibly because he intended to divorce and wed anew.

Little is known of Ashley-Cooper's first wife. His second, Christina Casella, was the daughter of a Swedish diplomat. She bore him two sons, Anthony and Nicholas.

He had no children during his brief and troubled marriage to his third wife, Jamila, who was an escort hostess and prostitute - and accomplice to his murder.

Educated at Eton and Oxford, Anthony Ashley-Cooper was 22 when he inherited his title - 10th Earl of Shaftesbury - on the death of his grandfather. With the title came the family seat at Wimborne, Dorset and its 9,000-acre estate.

Not so wise move

After divorcing Christina, Ashley-Cooper moved to southern France, but his Riviera was one of drink, drugs and prostitutes, not sophisticated glamour. The British writer W Somerset Maugham, who knew the area well, said it was "a sunny place for shady people."

Jamila M'barek came into Ashley-Cooper's life after he hired her: she was an escort girl. They married on 5 November 2002.

Ashley-Cooper owned properties in Ireland and France as well as Britain. A month before he married Jamila, he made a new will leaving much of his estate to his soon-to-be bride. Marriage generally invalidates previous wills. In this instance, he presumably made the will in contemplation of his pending nuptials, which would make it valid after the wedding.

The marriage soured quickly, and Ashley-Cooper soon enjoyed the services of another escort girl. Soon, too, he proposed marriage, and it was accepted.

On 5 November 2004, the second anniversary of their marriage, Ashley-Cooper visited Jamila. But this was not a social or celebratory visit. Rather, he used the occasion to tell Jamila that he wanted a divorce.

Final anniversary

He was never seen alive again.

Five months later, his decomposed body was discovered in a remote rubbish-strewn bit of wasteland near Cannes. He had been strangled.

The discovery of his body hit Jamila hard in her pocketbook.

If Ashley-Cooper's remains had never been found, he would eventually have been presumed to have died and, as his widow, Jamila would have inherited an estate worth millions. As his ex-wife, she would have received much less.

As an accomplice to his murder, she received nothing and, having paid her accomplice brother £100,000, actually sustained a loss on the project.

But as a prison inmate, Jamila enjoys free room and board. In 2007, she and her brother Muhammad were convicted of the murder. Jamila was sentenced to 25 years in jail, reduced on appeal to 20 years.

Ashley-Cooper's eldest son, Anthony, became the 11th Earl on the death of his father, but shortly after the body of his father was discovered, the new Earl died suddenly, reportedly of a heart attack. He was 27.

His younger brother, Anthony, is now the 12th Earl.