Ex-Met detective gave conflicting accounts of wife’s death in Barbados

Warren Arter, a former Metropolitan Police detective inspector, gave hotel staff and relatives different explanations after his wife Rebekah died in Barbados in June 2024, BBC Panorama reports. Its interviews add detail to concerns raised at a British inquest about his accounts and the investigation into her death.

Rebekah Arter was 47 when she died in the couple’s hotel room. A security guard, Andrew, told the BBC that Warren initially said she had fallen near a chest of drawers. Rebekah’s daughter-in-law, Lacey, said he told her he had woken up and found his wife dead. The BBC also reported that he told others she had choked.

Family members had previously described conflicting accounts at the inquest, according to Barbadian newspaper Nation News. Coroner Andrew Harris called Warren’s accounts “inconsistent and unreliable”. He recorded an open verdict, saying the death likely involved intoxication but that the medical cause was unascertained. He could not rule out unlawful killing, an accident or a natural death.

The inquest heard that key toxicology tests had not been carried out and that Rebekah’s organs had been dissected before her body was returned to Britain. A UK pathologist said this served no medical purpose and destroyed evidence, according to the BBC. Harris said the treatment of the organs raised the prospect of concealment or obstruction of an investigation.

Barbadian authorities had attributed the death to aspiration pneumonitis, an inflammation of the lungs, but Harris did not accept that finding. A Barbadian police official previously told Nation News that no marks of violence were found and there was nothing to suggest anything untoward. Police in Barbados did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

The BBC says it has seen video evidence that Warren subjected Rebekah to domestic and sexual abuse, coercive control and drugging. He had been dismissed from the Met in 2023 for drug offences and investigated over his conduct towards other women, but was never convicted in those cases. He took his own life in prison shortly after returning to Britain, where he had been arrested over alleged offences against another woman.

In a report aimed at preventing future deaths, Harris said police and the police watchdog may have missed opportunities to identify and protect Rebekah as a victim of abuse. He also found that a software flagging error meant the Met did not act on separate allegations of sexual offences against Warren reported in March 2024. Harris said it was likely he would have been arrested and remanded had the error not occurred.

Rebekah’s family told the BBC they had raised concerns with the Met after her death. The force did not send detectives to Barbados, saying it had assessed whether to travel but decided that doing so would not be appropriate without an allegation of criminality.