Sarah Williams sentenced to minimum of 30 years and Katrina Walsh to at least 25 years for killing businesswoman

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Two women have been jailed for life for murdering a businesswoman in a planned killing of “barbaric savagery”.

Sarah Williams, 35, stood trial alongside her friend Katrina Walsh, 56, jointly accused of the murder of Sadie Hartley in January. Hartley, 60, a communications director, was paralysed with a stun gun and repeatedly stabbed by Williams, who had wanted to resume an affair with Hartley’s long-term partner, Ian Johnston, a former firefighter.



Williams was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and Walsh will serve at least 25 years. It took the jury seven hours and nine minutes to return a guilty verdict.

Justice Turner said the two women, both from Chester, had murdered Hartley for their own “amusement”. He said: “Sarah Williams, over a period of about 18 months you plotted the murder of a woman whose only crime was to love the man you wanted for yourself. But let no one make the mistake of thinking that this was a crime of passion. It was a crime of obsession, of arrogance, of barbarity, but above all it was a crime of pure evil. And over that period of 18 months of scheming, you found in Katrina Walsh both a fellow spirit and enthusiastic participant.”



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Hartley, who had answered the door to Williams, was left in a pool of blood in the hallway of her home, having suffered more than 40 stab wounds.

Johnston, 57, who was away on a skiing trip at the time, was the object of desire for “jealous and obsessive” Williams, who wanted Hartley out of the way.

During the seven-week trial at Preston crown court, the jury heard details of explicit texts sent between Williams, a travel agent, and Johnston just days before Hartley was murdered. The jury was told Williams recruited her friend Walsh, a horse riding instructor, to execute the “perfect murder”.



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

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The jury heard the pair travelled to Germany to buy the stun gun last December and, exactly a week before Hartley was murdered, Walsh delivered flowers to her door in a dry run for their plans.

Williams was a “kept woman” supported by her wealthy “sugar daddy” boyfriend, married David Hardwick, 75, the court heard. She was said to have become infatuated with Johnston after they met at Chill Factore, an indoor ski slope in Manchester, in 2012.

After their brief relationship had broken down, Johnston began a new life with Hartley, and the two of them began living together in Helmshore, Lancashire. But sex texts and explicit photographs continued to be exchanged between Johnston and Williams up to just days before the murder, the court heard.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sarah Williams after her arrest for the murder of Sadie Hartley. Photograph: Lancashire police/PA

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Katrina Walsh after her arrest for the murder of Hartley. Photograph: Lancashire police/PA

The court heard that Johnston had ended his affair with Williams after she became “possessive and difficult” but that she continued to harbour a “delusional hope of a dream life with her ideal man” and spent 17 months plotting the murder of Hartley with Walsh.

Johnston has denied he “led her on”, telling the jury the relationship was “just sex”, but Walsh told police Williams would do anything to be with him, even planting tracker devices on his car to follow his movements.

On 14 January, the day after her daughter’s engagement, Hartley was found dead in the hallway of her home, having been stabbed and slashed 40 times. A barb from the stun gun was found in her collar.

As the unanimous guilty verdicts were read out, Williams briefly closed her eyes before composing herself as Johnston, and Hartley’s daughter, Charlotte, broke down in tears. A gasp was heard from the public gallery as the jury returned another guilty verdict for Walsh.



