Life for 'Death on the Nile' killer

Lawyer Cheryl Lesley Lewis died in agony

An industrial chemist who poisoned his wealthy lawyer girlfriend on holiday in Egypt has been jailed for life.

John Fredrick Allan, 48, had denied murdering his partner Cheryl Lewis at the luxury New Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor.

But he was found guilty by a majority verdict at Liverpool Crown Court.

Passing a life sentence, the judge, Mrs Justice Smith, told Allan that she would recommend he serve a very long sentence.

"This was a cruel and pre-meditated killing," she said.

Tourist Pamela Black said she smelled death

"In the privacy of your hotel room you abused the trust and confidence which Cheryl Lewis placed in you as her partner and in my view you tricked her into taking cyanide.

"You must then have watched her suffer until she was beyond making a complaint."

The court heard Allan, from Wirral, tricked her into taking cyanide in a bid to inherit her £400,000 fortune.

Ms Lewis, 43, who grew up in Pwllheli, where her family still live, was taken ill two days before the end of their week-long holiday.

American tourist Pamela Black told the jury how, as she was registering at the hotel, Allan arrived at reception in a distressed state asking for help for his partner.

Miss Black, who trained in first aid with an airline, and her father went upstairs with the defendant.

John Frederick Allan had denied the killing

They found the door open and the room in a dishevelled state with clothes everywhere and the bathroom in a mess.

She said Miss Lewis was lying in the centre of the bed sweating profusely, slipping in and out of consciousness, groaning and with her face an ashen grey colour.

Miss Black said there was a smell coming from her mouth that filled the room.

She said: "I guess it smelled like I thought death would smell like."

She said she could barely feel a pulse from Ms Lewis, who was foaming at the mouth. But when she asked Allan to carry out mouth to mouth resuscitation on his partner he refused.

Cyanide

Miss Black said the defendant's demeanour "was extremely odd".

Later his first wife Jacqueline Millard told the court how the industrial chemist used a cyanide solution to kill butterflies.

Ms Millard, who divorced the defendant in 1977, told the jury how access to cyanide was "frighteningly common" for an analytical chemist, who would be aware of the chemical's properties and effects.

Allan had claimed the killing of his partner - a Wirral solicitor - could be the work of notorious Liverpool drug dealer Curtis Warren, currently in prison in Holland.

He also claimed he was a former secret agent and the killing was to stop him from publishing a book of his experiences.

Forged will

Later still, he claimed to have been framed by Ms Lewis's estranged husband, Graham Loseby.

Ms Lewis's family alerted detectives immediately after her death when they found what they believed to be a forged will leaving the bulk of her £400,000 estate to Allan.

A post-mortem had previously failed to pinpoint cyanide poisoning as the cause of the wealthy solicitor's death.

But cyanide capsules were found in her Mercedes car - which Allan continued to use after her death.