Wife and lover jailed over plot to kill husband

An unfaithful wife and her pensioner lover were jailed today for their part in an “evil plot” to kill her husband.

Sonia Cornwell was assistant matron at a care home when she fell in love with a patient’s husband and decided her own husband had to die.

The new man in her life, Enrico Battaglia, 67, agreed, and, with the help of a cousin and a man in a pub, eventually contacted a hit man.

He paid the would-be killer a £1,000 (€1,400) down payment, handed over a photograph of his intended victim and told him where he lived.

Cornwell, who has consistently denied any involvement in the plot, was sentenced to eight years in prison today.

Her lover, Battaglia, who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy as well as another count of soliciting murder, was jailed for six-and-a-half years at London’s Southwark Crown Court in England.

In sentencing the pair, Judge Peter Fingret, described their plot as “an evil plan” and told Cornwell she had been “a full co-operative, willing and enthusiastic participant” in the plan.

He described Battaglia as “the principal planner” in the plot, although Cornwell was kept informed, giving support and encouragement for what the judge described as a “despicable act”.

The pair showed no emotion as they were sentenced.

Judge Fingret told Cornwell that it was “unusual” that her husband had constantly backed her since they were charged.

He said: “Since then, he has stood by you and written to me pleading leniency on your behalf.”

The court had heard how a series of late-night meetings were held about the killing, but the negotiations became so protracted that 50-year-old Cornwell, of Highfield Road, Thrapston, Northants, got cold feet and called the whole thing off.

She thought that was the end of the matter but reckoned without the guilty conscience of the man paid to pull the trigger.

To make himself feel better, he tipped off the police and the others were arrested.

Battaglia’s cousin, Roger Conetta, 55, of Thicket Road, Sutton, Surrey – one of those who helped contact the would-be killer known only as Newman – was jailed for five years at an earlier hearing after pleading guilty to the conspiracy charge.

Cornwell’s two-week trial heard she had been married 20 years when she and Battaglia became lovers.

Battalgia’s wife suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and is a patient at the Raunds Lodge nursing home, Wellingborough, Northants, where the defendant worked.

The pair met during one of his many visits and later began an affair.

Judge Fingret told the pair they were being given “appropriate credit” for deciding to cancel the plot, although he added it was clear that “both of you had real intent to have John Cornwell killed so that you could both carry on your relationship and live together.”