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Travel employee jailed for Sadie Hartley murder

A former Crystal Ski Holidays worker who murdered a love rival in an attack she plotted with a friend has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years.

Sarah Williams, 35, stunned Sadie Hartley with a cattle prod and stabbed her 41 times in an “orgy of violence”, a court heard.

She attacked the 60-year-old at her home in Helmshore, Lancashire, in a bid to win back ex-lover Ian Johnston, a ski instructor.

Williams and accomplice Katrina Walsh, 56, were both found guilty of murder and given life sentences at Preston Crown Court.

Walsh was ordered to serve a minimum term of 25 years for her part in the killing, described by a judge as being “planned and rehearsed down to the finest detail”.

Jurors deliberated for seven hours and nine minutes before returning a verdict at the end of the seven-week trial

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 rekindle her relationship with 57-year-old Mr Johnston, which he had ended after she became “possessive and difficult”, jurors heard.

Johnston began a new life with Ms Hartley – but his ex-lover and her accomplice spent 18 months plotting the “perfect murder” to win him back.

The court heard how, on the day of her death in January, Ms Hartley was at home alone because Mr Johnston was away on a skiing trip in the Swiss Alps.

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