Camilla Crofton is a character appearing in the episode Sins of Commission of the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
Formerly Ekaterina Poltova, Camilla had grown up in Russia and become a prisoner of Dubrovnik Gulag. She survived her prison sentence and escaped to England where she worked against the Soviets and became a War Hero.
She then married Oliver Crofton who died not too long after their marriage. She never remarried, even though Conor Maplin had proposed to her before he ultimately married Grace Maplin.
She wrote the novel Chromosome Wars, but she could not have it published under her own name. In order to work around this, she had it published under the pseudonym Jezebel Tripp and hired an actress to assume the role for the time being.
Two years later, Camilla had decided to come forward with the truth of the novel's authorship. Unfortunately, she informed Jezebel of this decision; Jezebel subsequently brought together Sam Callaghan, Richard Rackham, and Neville Williams to find a solution to this situation where all four stood to lose a lot. Eventually, it was agreed that Camilla would have to die. However, given her history in the war and her prior experience in Dubrovnik, Camilla quickly proved that they stood no chance.
Richard Rackham was the first to make a murder attempt which Camilla described as amateurish. She broke his neck and sent him tumbling down the stairs in his own home. Sam Callaghan was shocked to find Camilla still alive the next day.
Neville Williams was next. He had Camilla meet him on the roof at Maplin Hall during the Literary Festival after telling her he was going through some sort of trouble. Despite attempting to push her off the roof, Camilla turned herself around, putting Neville at the edge before smashing his head with a stone and sending him down to the ground.
In an attempt to deflect suspicion, she left a fake love letter in a locker that Richard Rackham used to store certain letters and statements.
Jezebel Tripp then decided to take the matter into her own hands a day later. Most likely, she attempted to stage a fall into a pond in order to have Camilla drown. However, Camilla immediately took her down and ended up stabbing her with a tent peg, accidentally framing John Denton in the process.
Sam Callaghan made one final attempt by breaking into her house and trying to suffocate her with a pillow. She took him down and threw him onto the couch in her living room but was able to stop herself from killing him. When Barnaby and Scott entered her house in response to the burglar alarm triggered by Callaghan's break-in, she bailed him out. Once Barnaby and Scott left, she made a deal in which she would be able to tell the truth about the novel in exchange for not telling the police about his attempted murder.
On the day of the Maplin Prize, both she and Denton received prizes. after which she revealed the truth about Chromosome Wars. Barnaby made the connection and arrested her.
While she was charged for the murders, Barnaby stated that a jury would most likely be in favor of a plea of self-defense and that he would do all he could for her defense in court before the end of the episode.
Victims[]
All the murders were claimed to be acts of reflex in self-defense, mainly because the victims tried to kill the murderer before they were killed.
- Richard Rackham - Knocked down, had his neck broken and then thrown down a flight of stairs.
- Neville Williams - Pushed to the edge of the building's roof, hit on the head with a rock, and fell onto the stone patio bellow.
- Jezebel Tripp - Knocked down and stabbed in the chest with a tent peg.
- Sam Callaghan - Knocked down and attempted to kill with a fire poker; Camilla relented, lied for Sam, and bartered for a deal.