As she sat in the grandeur of her room in the Winter Palace Hotel, Wirral solicitor Cheryl Lewis should have had no cause to worry.
Cheryl, 43, was on holiday with her long-time partner John Allan. She was drinking a night cap - a gin and tonic - in the British colonial-era hotel, which stands on the banks of the River Nile in Luxor, Egypt.
It was on a stay at the hotel that Agatha Christie wrote her 1937 crime classic 'Death on the Nile'. Over half a century after the murder mystery novel's publication, the hotel became the site of a real-life killing.
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On that October 1998 holiday, Ms Lewis became the victim of a calculated poisoning plot carried out by Allan. The subsequent murder trial rocked Merseyside.
Ms Lewis and Allan lived together in Oxton. They had been together for several years.
She was a partner at her Birkenhead solicitors' practice, Cheryl Lewis and Co. He had been a chemist and said his work often took him overseas.
However, all was not well in the relationship as the two ventured to Egypt. Ms Lewis had contemplated moving on from Allan.
He relied on her financially. At this point, Ms Lewis was worth around £400,000. Unbeknownst to her, he forged her will earlier in 1997, making himself the main beneficiary.
As the two sat in their grand hotel room on their luxury African holiday, Ms Lewis began to feel ill. Soon, she was in agony.
Ms Lewis was sweating profusely and stopped breathing properly. She began foaming at the mouth.
Allan phoned the hotel's reception desk. He told them "his wife was dying".
Soon, an American tourist offered to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Ms Lewis. Allan objected and watched as she suffocated.
Ms Lewis' death was reported by Egyptian authorities. They sent a report to Merseyside Police and Allan returned to Wirral.
He soon became close with Ms Lewis' friend Jennifer Hughes, who he knew through a Wirral golf club.
Meanwhile, an inquest into Ms Lewis' death opened. It heard that the post-mortem had not established her cause of death. As such, further tests went ahead, which discovered cyanide in her stomach.
Allan was arrested in February 1999. However, he suffered a heart attack after the arrest and was admitted to Arrowe Park Hospital.
After detectives were able to question Allan, he was charged with murder and was tried at Liverpool Crown Court.
David Steer KC (then QC), prosecuting said: "Ms Lewis was lying naked on the bed. She was sweating profusely so much so that the sheets were wet and there was an area of dampness all around her.
"She was hardly breathing and foaming at the mouth."
The seven-week trial heard that four blocks of sodium cyanide were found in a car Allan was driving - a former company car of Ms Lewis'. Allan falsely claimed drug dealers, arms runners or diamond smugglers were responsible for poisoning his partner. The reality was very different.
The jury found Allan guilty of murder. Allan himself had poisoned Ms Lewis by putting the cyanide into her gin and tonic.
Judge Mrs Justice Smith, told Allan: "This was a cruel and pre-meditated killing. 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."
After the verdict, Ms Lewis' father, Eric Lewis, said outside court: "All we as a family wanted was justice for Cheryl and thank God justice prevailed. As we all know Allan was a self-confessed liar, forger and an evil man and of course he has been found guilty of committing the ultimate crime.
Allan was subsequently sentenced to life in jail. He remains behind bars today.
The trial and his incarceration were timely. Merseyside Police believed he was planning Jennifer Hughes' death by poisoning and had already given her a dose of cyanide.
Following the case's conclusion, Detective Superintendent Dave Smith said: "I feel the sentence makes the community a great deal safer. He is a very dangerous man. We believe Jennifer Hughes was the next victim."
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