Stun-gun murder jury to deliberate

A jury will today retire to consider their verdicts in the “love triangle” stun-gun murder trial of a wealthy businesswoman.

Sarah Williams, 35, is accused of paralysing Sadie Hartley, 60, with a 500,000 volt stun-gun before attacking her victim with “demonic savagery” with a kitchen knife on January 14.

Lord Justice Turner told the jury in the trial at Preston Crown Court that he will complete his summing up and it will then be sent out to consider its verdicts.

Ms Hartley, who had answered the door to “bunny boiler” Williams was left in a pool of blood in the hallway of her £500,000 home, having suffered more than 40 stab wounds, the prosecution alleges.

Her partner, ex-fireman Ian Johnston, 57, away on a skiing trip at the time, was the object of desire for “jealous and obsessive” Williams who wanted Ms Hartley, a successful businesswoman out of the way, it is claimed.

The jury heard ski holiday firm worker Williams recruited her friend, horse riding instructor Kitt Walsh, 56, to execute the “perfect murder”.

In a plot “the stuff of spy novels” John McDermott QC, prosecuting, told the jury police recovered Walsh’s detailed diary, chronicling the pair’s 18 month plan to murder Ms Hartley.