Channel 5's A Very British Sex Scandal: Who is Jamila M’Barek, what did she do and where is she now?

True crime enthusiasts will be glued to their screens tonight (Wednesday), as Channel 5 airs A Very British Sex Scandal: The Earl and The Escort. The documentary follows the investigation into the disappearance and murder of one of the country's wealthiest men.

The 10th Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, went missing in 2004. As the search for him continued, his body was discovered in a ravine at the foothills of the Alps.

For the first time Jamila M'Barek, the Earl's estranged wife, speaks about her involvement in the murder. The program from Channel 5 features contributions from Jamila's lawyers, detectives, and reporters who worked on the case

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Who is Jamila M’Barek?

Jamila M'Barek was brought up one of seven children in Pas-de-Calais, France. The children were reportedly abused by a violent, alcoholic father.

When M'Barek was six years old, her mother fled with her and her six siblings to Tunisia. M'Barek spent most of her childhood there.

M'Barek moved to Switzerland in her early twenties. At 17, she moved to Saint-Tropez and married her first husband, with whom she had two children.

When M'Barek met the Earl of Shaftesbury, she was a divorcée and mother of two.

Who was Earl Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper?

Anthony Ashley-Cooper was one of Britain’s wealthiest men. Part of a historic family based in Dorset whose assets included grand properties in the UK and France, they also owned a 9,000-acre estate and works of art worth tens of millions of pounds.

By the time he was in his sixties, he was splitting his time between the ancestral family home in the South West of England and the French Riviera. There, he enjoyed a hedonistic lifestyle of drink, drugs and sex, all funded by his multi-million-pound inheritance.

When did the pair get married?

M'Barek met the Earl through an escort agency in France. In 2002, the pair were married, which made M'Barek the third Countess of Shaftesbury.

Two years later, after he sought a divorce, the Earl was found dead. M’Barek confessed that her brother was responsible for the murder.

When did he go missing and when was he found?

The 10th Earl of Shaftesbury disappeared in France when he was 66, prompting an international police investigation. On November 15, 2004, Shaftesbury's Nice-based lawyer, Thierry Bensaude, reported him missing after being contacted by his girlfriend.

On April 7, 2005, a body was discovered by the French authorities in a valley at Théoule-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes on the outskirts of Cannes. Identified as the Earl's remains, they were discovered five months after his death.

Who was implicated in the investigation?

M'Barek, then in her early forties, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital three months later. There, she had an emotional breakdown and began confessing to her involvement in her husband's death.

When interviewed by police, she claimed that Shaftesbury had been beaten to death by her brother, Mohamed M'Barek, during a fight regarding the couple's divorce at her flat in Cannes. Both of whom were convicted of his murder.

The Earl's estranged wife reportedly told investigators: "I did not want him to die. I just wanted my brother to intimidate him so that he would continue to pay me my allowance.

"But he didn't want to have anything to do with it, so a violent quarrel broke out. I left the room because I could not stand to see what was happening."

What happened to the Earl and his family?

The 10th Earl was cremated in Monaco and buried at his family seat in Wimborne, Dorset. His elder son, Anthony, died of natural causes only five weeks after becoming the 11th Earl and was succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas.

What happened to Jamila M’Barek?

During the case, the prosecution played a secretly recorded telephone conversation between the defendant and her sister, Naima, in which Jamila discussed £100,000 paid to her brother, allegedly his fee for contract killing. She additionally recounted precisely how she was going to blame her brother for her husband's death.

M'Barek was subsequently imprisoned for having paid her brother to murder her husband. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison, later reduced to 20 years.

How was Jamelia M'Barek described in court?

A report by the magistrate in the 2007 trial said: "She was an escort girl who loved the high life and wanted to preserve the social and financial status procured by her marriage to the Earl of Shaftesbury.

"She had an easy, even luxury lifestyle that was a revenge on her poor childhood. She chose the life of a kept woman, with multiple affairs with men she chose for their bank accounts and their assets."

What does she say on the Channel 5 documentary?

Still known as the Dowager Countess of Shaftesbury, M'Barek denies wanting Anthony dead in A Very British Sex Scandal.

She said: “I would like to explain to [his family] everything. I would tell them, ‘Sorry for the pain you had.' I feel sorry for his family because Anthony was a very nice person, really generous. I regret what happened.”

A Very British Sex Scandal: The Earl and The Escort is on tonight (Wednesday) at 9pm on Channel 5