It sounds like the plot to the latest drama show on television or perhaps even a movie of the week, but this true story is no entertainment plot. A British businessman recently stood trial for murdering his wife. The man, Kevin Sweeney, claimed that he accidentally started a fire with a discarded cigarette. The fire claimed the life of Suzanne Davies, Sweeney’s wife.

A jury, however, believes that Sweeney started the fire on purpose with the intention of killing his wife in order to try to claim £500,000 in life insurance payments.

The Dutch court originally acquitted Sweeney of murder. Sweeney and Davies lived in the Dutch town of Steensel, near the border of Belgium. That was more than 13 years ago.

The prosecutors, however, were convinced that Sweeney was to blame and they appealed the verdict.  A new investigation using modern forensic science was launched. This process involved, among other things, of creating a replica of the bedroom where Miss Davies died. They order 12 beds from the English manufacturer that were identical to the one in which she died in order to create a series of test fires.

These tests demonstrated that Sweeney, who is now in his 50s, started the fire. He used bottles of inflammable liquid to start the fire. His wife choked to death from the fumes, which an expert described as a “horrible and extremely painful” way to die.

The family of the dead woman has been waiting a long time for justice. It is, of course, bittersweet, as nothing the court does will bring the woman back.

Sweeney’s wives have met with a series of misfortunes. His first wife, an American medical student named Jeannie, was killed in a car crash. Sweeney and second wife, Liz Larson, separated amicably, and remained friends. However, Sweeney’s third wife, Beverly Flint, met with disaster, as well. Flint and Sweeney had two daughters. Flint died mysteriously in 1993 during a visit from her parents just two days after she had had a medical check-up.

At the time, Sweeney claimed that his 33-year-old wife had suffered a heart attack. She had had what doctors called a “a heart murmur” when she was 11 but her family had been assured that it was not life-threatening.

Sweeney then dated Chris Rowley, an Australian, to whom he bragged that he got half a million pounds from the insurance company as a result of Flint’s death. Not long after, he met Miss Davies through an advertisement in Private Eye magazine.  Miss Davies had a £100,000 life insurance policy dating from 1993 and three months before her death the couple bought the house in Steensel with a £194,000 mortgage in her name backed by a another life insurance policy.