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| Sadie Hartley killing: Women guilty of murdering love rival | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A woman has been found guilty of stabbing a love rival to death in a "cold-blooded" murder plot she orchestrated with a friend. | |
| Sadie Hartley, 60, was stunned with a cattle prod and stabbed 40 times in Helmshore, Lancashire, on 14 January. | |
| Sarah Williams, 35, killed businesswoman Ms Hartley so she could have her partner, Ian Johnston, to herself, Preston Crown Court heard. | |
| Williams and accomplice Katrina Walsh, 56, were both found guilty of murder. | |
| Jurors deliberated for seven hours and nine minutes before returning a verdict at the end of the seven-week trial. | |
| Live: Reaction to the verdict | |
| What drove a woman to kill her love rival? | |
| Daughter describes impact of murder ordeal | |
| During the trial, prosecutor John McDermott QC described the duo as a self-styled "Batman and Robin but on the wrong side of the law". | |
| He said they plotted to fulfil Williams' desire to be with 57-year-old Mr Johnston, with whom she had been involved in the past. | |
| The fireman had ended the relationship after she became "possessive and difficult", jurors heard. | |
| After paralysing "decent, hard-working" Ms Hartley with the cattle prod, Williams, of Treborth Road, Blacon, Chester, stabbed the mother-of-two "in an orgy of violence" and with "demonic savagery", the court was told. | |
| Williams swallowed hard as the jury forewoman delivered the verdicts, while Walsh gave a slight nod of her head. | |
| Ms Hartley's daughter, Charlotte, 23, wiped away tears as she sat in the public gallery next to Garry Hartley, her father and Ms Hartley's ex-husband, and her brother, Harry. | |
| Mr Johnston, sitting a few rows behind them, had tears in his eyes and gave a slight nod as the verdicts came in. | |
| Walsh, of Hare Lane, Chester, who was recruited by Williams to to help her with the "murderous mission", kept a diary as they hatched the plot, jurors were told. | |
| One entry read: "Sarah came round so got caught up in endless murder plots". | |
| Another read: "Wow, I may get to be instrumental in helping to remove the awful woman." |