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January the 7th, 2016, Helmshaw, Lancashire, England. 60-year-old Sadie Hartley
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was home alone around 9 p.m. in the evening when
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she answered the doorbell. Standing there with a bunch of
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flowers was Katrina Walsh, a woman Sadie had never met.
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Sadie asked her who the flowers were from, and Walsh
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just kind of uttered something like,' I don't remember,' and
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then scuffled away.
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This was a dry run for a murder plot meticulously
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planned by two women.
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And all the while, Sarah Williams was hiding behind a
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parked car, watching her prey.
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Seven days later, when Sadie answered the doorbell again, 500,000
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volts of electricity knocked her to the floor.
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Essentially, there was no chance that she would survive it.
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Sadie Hartley lay helpless as she was stabbed to death
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by Sarah Williams.
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It was a crime of obsession, of arrogance, of barbarity.
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But above all, it was a crime of pure evil.
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In four minutes and 40 seconds, Sarah Williams had dispensed
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of Sadie Hartley. She calmly left the scene and returned
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to her accomplice, Katrina Walsh. After 17 months of planning,
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an innocent woman lay dead. A woman Sarah Williams and
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Katrina Walsh didn't even know, making them two of the
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world's most evil killers. 1993, the Wirral, Northwest England. 12-year-old
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Sarah Williams was passionate about horses and a very good
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equestrian sportswoman.
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She met a riding instructor much older than she was,
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a good 20 years or more older than she was,
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called Katrina Walsh, at a local riding stables.
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Despite the age gap, the two women bonded through their
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shared love of horses... and became firm friends. Over the
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next few years, they formed an intense, almost inseparable relationship.
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When people saw the friendship, the very close friendship between
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Williams and Walsh, because they spent so much time together
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in and out of each other's houses, in each other's
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pockets all the time, I think there were some suspicions
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that they were more than just friends, that this was
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an intimate relationship.
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As Williams grew up, she became known as an incorrigible
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flirt and had a series of male lovers.
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I think Williams does very much see men as a challenge,
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especially married men. I think this idea of going out
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and turning on the charm and having somebody fall for you,
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it's something that she finds quite appealing.
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When Sarah Williams set her sights on a man, no
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one was going to get in her way. Her best friend,
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Katrina Walsh, was only too willing to help her get
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what she wanted. And what Sarah Williams wanted was a
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man called Ian Johnston, whom she was in a relationship with.
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He describes her being really friendly and them getting on
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straight away. And then one night, after they'd known each
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other For a few months, she turns up at his
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house in a short skirt, red heels, and the intimacy
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was immediate, and the relationship was physical straightaway.
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Williams had met the man she wanted to marry, but
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he and Johnston had a long-term partner called Sadie Hartley.
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Williams and Walsh decided that Sadie Hartley was a problem
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that needed to go away.
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This didn't happen in the heat of the moment. This
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was a murder plot that these two women had spent
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17 months planning, and I think that's what makes it
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so horrific. This wasn't a crime of passion. This was
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a crime of obsession. She was obsessed with Sadie Hartley's partner,
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Ian Johnston. She wanted to get rid of her, and
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she did.
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Williams and Walsh thought they'd committed the perfect murder. They
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were in it together until they were caught.
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Williams maintains her innocence steadfastly and Walsh confesses but doesn't
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confess to killing Hartley herself. She says Williams did it.
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The friendship is fractured. Williams absolutely brazenly fronts it up
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and says, nothing to do with me. Williams is still
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living in her own parallel universe.
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These killer stories begin in 1960. Katrina Walsh was born
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on February the 4th in Middlesex. Sarah Williams was born
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21 years later on the 8th of May, 1981, in Merseyside.
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Sarah Williams was an only child, daughter of an electrician,
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Perfectly reasonable, apparently, as a girl. Had a lazy eye.
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We saw her get bullied a bit at school. She
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went to a private school. Well-educated and capable. Very capable.
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But when she got into her teens, as she grew older,
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she realised that she was quite attractive to men. And
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this was something that she really seized upon. So those
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feelings of shame and inadequacy that she'd had when she
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was younger, they were counteracted by this validation that she
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got from the attention of men.
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Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh met in 1993. Williams loved
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horses and went to the riding school where Walsh stabled
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her own horse and was a riding instructor. They became
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firm and enduring friends.
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Was there a sexual relationship between Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh,
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a woman much, much older than her, who suffered from
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terrible alopecia and almost no hair? She was almost always
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wearing a bandana or a hat or a cap. If
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you look at the pictures of them both, they couldn't
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be more different. But there was something very strong, something
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very powerful keeping that relationship together.
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When Williams was 13 years old, she claimed to have
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been assaulted by a man who had stopped to fix
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his car. And this was an allegation that the police
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took very seriously and they investigated it. There were appeals
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for information from the public put out at the time.
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So this is a very pivotal moment in Williams' life,
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whether or not this story was a true one.
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Nobody was ever charged with the abduction, and there were
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suspicions that Williams had made the whole story up. In 1999,
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when Sarah Williams was 17 years old and still at school,
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she met 57-year-old married father David Hardwick at the riding school.
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Hardwick is a shadowy figure throughout this story. Hardwick is
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her benefactor, her sugar daddy, He gives her enormous amounts
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of money over the years. He's married to someone much
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more of his own age. They never divorce. Williams knows
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from a very early age that the power her sexual
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drive has, and she uses it to her full advantage.
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Sarah Williams left school at the age of 18. From
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2005 to 2013, she worked for a bank selling personal insurance.
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In 2006, she moved away from home and bought her
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first house, largely bankrolled by David Hardwick, who also paid
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her a weekly allowance of 320 pounds.
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Hardwick is a consistent support to Williams throughout her life. Now,
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you can speculate about why. You can speculate about what
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was Hardwick getting out of it. On the surface, not
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very much. apart, I suspect, from a great deal of sex.
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William's best friend, Katrina Walsh, married her husband, Kevin, in 1984,
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nine years before she met Sarah Williams.
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Walsh was quite an eccentric character. She was somebody who
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shared William's love of horse riding, and that is how
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they met. She was into tarot cards. She was quite
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heavily tattooed. And she was a biker. She was interested
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in motorbikes. And these were some passions that she shared
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with her husband, Kevin.
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And Kevin and Katrina, and then, believe it or not,
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Hardwick and Williams, develop a sort of foursome. And they
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go on expeditions together. In a horse box, they take
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their horses. It's got sleeping accommodation. It's a very big
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horse box. And at one point, Kevin Walsh, Katrina's husband,
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describes it as a purple passion wagon. And then in 2008,
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Katrina Walsh and Kevin divorce. He's had an affair with
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somebody else. He goes off. He moves to Kattrick in
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North Yorkshire and leaves the Wirral behind him.
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He felt that the relationship between Sarah Williams and Katrina
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Walsh was dysfunctional.
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There was always this.
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Thing where he felt like if he hadn't left, Katrina
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would never have got as close as she did with
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Sarah because he would have been there to stop that
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from happening.
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But Williams was also a long way from being monogamous.
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I think she had a great many affairs, probably to
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the consternation or perhaps to the amusement of Hardwick. He
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certainly didn't seem to object.
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The day before her 30th birthday, Sarah Williams was driving
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on the M60 motorway in Manchester when she passed the
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unique structure of the city's indoor ski center, the Chill Factory.
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She now knew what she wanted as a birthday present
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from her boyfriend, David Hardwick.
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Hardwick was not as enthusiastic about Williams' new hobby as
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she was, because he was slightly older, perhaps less inclined
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to engage in this kind of vigorous physical activity. But
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Williams dragged him along, and I think part of her
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enjoyed the attention that she got from men at the
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Chill Factory, but also the jealousy, I think, that Hardwick
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would have felt when he saw these relationships developing.
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Williams and Hardwick became regulars at the Chill Factory. Williams
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loved being there so much, she left her job to
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join a ski travel company based in the complex as
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a sales advisor.
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Williams, who is by now a rather athletic woman, she's
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more than 5'10, she's strong, big shoulders, muscular body, rapidly
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becomes a really rather good skier. She really enjoys it.
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It becomes her second home, almost. Selling insurance is not
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quite as much fun as the dry ski slopes.
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While working at the chill factory, Sarah Williams had several
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romantic affairs, mainly with married men who were ski instructors.
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The affairs that she has with married men, they only
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end when she decides that they have ended, and when
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the men decide that they've had enough, she reacts very
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badly indeed.
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In August 2013, Sarah Williams met 57-year-old retired fireman Ian Johnston,
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an expert telemark skier who was working as an instructor
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at the Chill Factory.
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He's actually been in a relationship for some time at
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this point, for a number of years, with a businesswoman,
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a tiny bit older than he is in her later
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50s at this point, called Sadie Hartley. But it's been
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on and off. And Johnston, well, he falls for the flirt.
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He falls for the femme fatale, or as she was
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later to describe herself, the she-devil.
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Sarah Williams and Ian Johnston's illicit relationship was developing rapidly.
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Williams began telling her friends that she'd met her ideal
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man and she was determined.
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To keep him. We have an extraordinary series of relationships.
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We have Williams and Walsh, closer now that Kevin Walsh
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has gone off. We have Williams and Hardwick. We have
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Williams and Johnston. And we have Johnston and Sadie Hartley.
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A great amalgam of relationships. All of them in a
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way driven by Williams' sexual desire.
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Sarah Williams was besotted with Ian Johnston. Although he was
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no longer seeing Sadie when he met Williams, they remained close.
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He was definitely somebody who, you know, was very confident
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with women, was used to getting lots of attention, enjoyed
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that attention. And so the fact that he ended up
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having this affair with Sarah Williams felt like it could
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easily have happened with his sort of personality type.
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Sarah Williams would watch for when Ian Johnston would come
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to the Chill Factory. She would get colleagues to tell
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her if his car was in the car park. Ian
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Johnston was her perfect man. He was a man that
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she wanted to marry. So I guess she saw... Sadie
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Hartley as the obstacle to that. She was the enemy,
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and she had to be got rid of.
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Sadie Hartley lived in the village of Helmshaw in Lancashire.
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She was a divorced mother with two adult children, a
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successful woman who ran her own medical conference business, and
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she also loved riding her horse that she kept at
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a local stable. In September 2014, Sarah Williams sent a
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letter to Sadie Hartley.
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In this letter, Sarah Williams personally attacks Sadie Hartley and
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adds in that the sex with Ian is fantastic and
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they can't get enough of each other and essentially said
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they were having sex all the time. and it was
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the best sex she'd ever had.
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And what is actually said within the letter is very
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revealing about the kind of person that Williams is. She
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is not putting the responsibility onto Ian. She's putting all
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of the responsibility onto Sadie. This isn't about Ian's continual
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decision to engage in an affair with her. This is
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about Sadie acting as the barrier to her having a
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more full relationship with Ian Johnston.
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But the letter didn't work to split them up because
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it was just a few weeks later that, in fact,
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Sadie and Ian moved in together.
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She thinks that she's justified in behaving in this way.
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She feels entitled to this man. So all of the
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behavior that she engages in, she thinks is perfectly reasonable.
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The letter did not deter Sadie Hartley or disrupt her
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relationship with Ian Johnston.
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Well, that just makes Williams even more furious. She hasn't
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managed to split up Hartley and Johnston to get Johnston back.
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In fact, rather the opposite. I think probably Johnston felt
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more loyal now to Sadie Hartley than he had done before.
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In October 2014, before moving in with Sadie Hartley, Ian
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Johnston officially ended his relationship with Sarah Williams.
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What has just been a bit of fun, I think,
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on his part, he decides to call an end to this.
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But Williams doesn't accept this. She's the one who's in
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00:17:35.390 --> 00:17:39.130
control in her relationship. She decides when they're over, and
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she simply does not accept his decision.
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Johnston's physical relationship with Williams was over, but they continued
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00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:50.700
to text and see each other at the Chill Factory,
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where they both worked.
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These text messages were, like, quite explicit in nature. There
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00:17:56.220 --> 00:18:01.150
were naked images in them. So although... Ian said their
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00:18:01.170 --> 00:18:03.970
relationship had come to an end, there was an aspect
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00:18:04.009 --> 00:18:05.710
of the relationship that was still going on.
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00:18:06.450 --> 00:18:10.410
But she attached meaning to that communication that wasn't actually there.
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00:18:10.869 --> 00:18:13.529
So it shows just how completely at odds both of
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00:18:13.589 --> 00:18:16.470
these individuals were in terms of their understanding of what
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00:18:16.539 --> 00:18:17.880
their relationship really was.
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00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:27.960
At some point in the late summer of 2014, Williams
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00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:31.299
and Walsh begin to have what are could only be
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00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:39.559
called chilling conversations about getting rid of Williams's love rival,
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00:18:40.319 --> 00:18:47.609
Sadie Hartley. Walsh starts to keep a diary of these conversations.
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00:18:48.529 --> 00:18:51.150
At one point, I think she writes in it, she
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00:18:51.190 --> 00:18:54.839
does sound like a totally evil bitch of Sadie Hartley.
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00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:57.960
Nothing could, in fact, have been further from the truth
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00:18:58.839 --> 00:19:02.549
But nevertheless, this is the venom that is supplied to
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00:19:02.589 --> 00:19:03.950
Walsh by Williams.
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00:19:05.329 --> 00:19:08.569
There were all sorts of things that Katrina Walsh wrote
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00:19:08.829 --> 00:19:13.869
in that diary which really revealed, I suppose, what her
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00:19:13.950 --> 00:19:16.690
true feelings were about what was going on.
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00:19:18.140 --> 00:19:22.759
The fantasy of dispensing with Sadie Hartley became an obsessive
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00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:24.859
pastime for Williams and Walsh.
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For this to go on for the period of time
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00:19:27.170 --> 00:19:31.339
that it did, there were multiple opportunities for Walsh to
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00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:33.740
put the brakes on it, to go and tell the police,
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00:19:33.779 --> 00:19:37.880
to tell a friend, to actually get something done about
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00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:41.440
what was going to happen, to basically stop this from happening,
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00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:42.589
but she chose not to.
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00:19:44.329 --> 00:19:49.789
By August 2015, ten months after Ian Johnston had officially
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00:19:49.809 --> 00:19:53.920
ended ended his relationship with Sarah Williams, a murder plot
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00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:56.980
that should have stayed in the realms of fantasy was
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00:19:57.019 --> 00:19:58.900
becoming ever more real.
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00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:02.819
In the late summer of 2014, Walsh suggests to Williams
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00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:07.769
that she approach Walsh's ex-husband, Kevin, who happens to be
285
00:20:07.789 --> 00:20:12.519
a keen archer. to become, would you believe it, a
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00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:19.529
hitman and kill Sadie Hartley. Well, Kevin Walsh is absolutely
287
00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:26.069
having none of it. Absolutely turns it down flat. It's ridiculous.
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00:20:26.829 --> 00:20:29.430
By this point, they've begun to enter what you might
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00:20:29.470 --> 00:20:31.069
describe as a parallel universe.
290
00:20:32.230 --> 00:20:36.180
There were burner phones acquired. It was something akin to
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00:20:36.539 --> 00:20:38.740
a plot in a spy novel.
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00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:39.269
And.
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00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:44.460
Whilst they were planning all of this, at the same time,
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00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:50.440
Katrina Walsh was detailing every single part of their planning
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00:20:51.259 --> 00:20:56.940
in her diary. So literally every little thing that they did,
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00:20:57.160 --> 00:20:58.869
she would put a note in her diary.
297
00:21:00.220 --> 00:21:04.190
So they've got burner phones. Now they know that Johnston,
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00:21:04.289 --> 00:21:07.829
who moved in with Sadie Hartley in November 2014, but
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00:21:07.849 --> 00:21:10.240
they don't know where He lives with her. They don't
300
00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:14.029
know where Sadie Hartley's house is. So, believe it or not,
301
00:21:14.089 --> 00:21:18.589
they buy a tracker device for his car, which Sarah
302
00:21:18.609 --> 00:21:19.809
Williams puts on his car.
303
00:21:20.589 --> 00:21:25.210
Sarah Williams bought the first tracker on Katrina Walsh's credit card.
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00:21:25.809 --> 00:21:28.990
The tracker led them to the house Sadie Hartley now
305
00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:34.220
shared with Ian Johnston in Helmshaw. the two women embarked
306
00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:39.039
on several reconnaissance missions to familiarize themselves with the property
307
00:21:39.579 --> 00:21:41.180
and surrounding location.
308
00:21:43.259 --> 00:21:48.680
So the plan is escalating quite steadily. There's been the
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00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:54.839
poison pen letter, the attempt to hire Kevin. We've got
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00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:58.269
the burner phones. We have the tracker device on fire.
311
00:21:58.900 --> 00:22:02.480
in Johnston's car. We now know where Johnston and Sadie
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00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:07.140
Hartley live. So they decide, and I think this is
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00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:10.920
a time when perhaps Katrina Walsh makes a bigger contribution.
314
00:22:12.220 --> 00:22:15.799
Katrina suggests to Sarah Williams that it's gonna be much
315
00:22:16.019 --> 00:22:20.000
easier to kill Sadie Hartley if she has a stun gun.
316
00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:28.940
Second of December, 2015, Greater Manchester. It was the night
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00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:33.769
of the Chill Factory's Christmas party. The first tracker placed
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00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:38.170
on Ian Johnston's car had failed. While the party was
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00:22:38.230 --> 00:22:42.109
in full swing, Sarah Williams left the party and attached
320
00:22:42.190 --> 00:22:45.309
a second tracker to Ian Johnston's car.
321
00:22:46.250 --> 00:22:48.759
So she buys this tracking device that she puts on
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00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:52.460
Ian Johnston's vehicle, and there are times when she has
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00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:54.700
to remove it from the vehicle, and when she does,
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00:22:55.099 --> 00:22:57.900
she's carrying it around in her own handbag And what
325
00:22:57.940 --> 00:23:00.440
she doesn't realise is that the company she's bought the
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00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:04.460
tracker from are also able to access the data that
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00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:08.269
the tracker is sending out. So this is a really
328
00:23:08.470 --> 00:23:11.910
ill-conceived plan. It's very badly thought through.
329
00:23:12.490 --> 00:23:16.539
The two women, Williams and Walsh, spend hours together plotting
330
00:23:17.150 --> 00:23:19.759
what they think and hope will be the perfect murder.
331
00:23:20.460 --> 00:23:25.000
Walsh is overjoyed at the involvement and Williams is utterly determined.
332
00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:29.009
They're going to kill. Sadie Hartley, come what may.
333
00:23:30.710 --> 00:23:35.799
On the 9th of December 2015, Sarah Williams and Katrina
334
00:23:35.859 --> 00:23:39.740
Walsh boarded a ferry from Hull to Rotterdam and drove
335
00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:42.059
to Germany to buy a stun gun.
336
00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:46.769
Then it starts to really feel like they're actively thinking
337
00:23:46.829 --> 00:23:49.650
about doing it because now they're purchasing weapons.
338
00:23:52.390 --> 00:23:55.579
Early in the new year, on January the 4th, 2016,
339
00:23:55.579 --> 00:24:00.259
Sarah Williams sent a text to Katrina Walsh.
340
00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:05.140
Williams says to Walsh, the time's coming, go and do
341
00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.829
your shopping. And so Walsh goes to Tesco and buys
342
00:24:08.869 --> 00:24:12.029
a considerable kitchen knife and uses her club card, so
343
00:24:12.049 --> 00:24:14.269
there can't be any doubt about who bought the kitchen knife.
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00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:20.200
Walsh was captured on CCTV at a Tesco supermarket in Broughton,
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00:24:20.539 --> 00:24:26.059
buying a large kitchen knife. The following day, on January 5th,
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00:24:26.910 --> 00:24:32.309
Sarah Williams retrieved the tracker from Ian Johnston's car. Again,
347
00:24:32.430 --> 00:24:36.079
she placed the tracker in her handbag without turning it off.
348
00:24:40.430 --> 00:24:44.349
On January the 6th, Ian Johnston went to Switzerland on
349
00:24:44.410 --> 00:24:48.230
a skiing holiday. Sadie Hartley was going to join him
350
00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:54.220
ten days later. Until then, she was home alone in Helmshaw.
351
00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:59.259
Williams and Walsh knew Ian Johnston was out of the way,
352
00:24:59.680 --> 00:25:04.089
safely in Switzerland. They knew where Sadie Hartley lived, but
353
00:25:04.230 --> 00:25:08.970
neither of them knew her by sight. they decided that
354
00:25:09.009 --> 00:25:13.769
a final reconnaissance mission was needed, a dry run for
355
00:25:13.809 --> 00:25:14.349
the murder.
356
00:25:15.170 --> 00:25:19.130
The pair decided that they would drive up together to Lancashire.
357
00:25:20.650 --> 00:25:27.339
They bought a cheap bunch of flowers from Tesco, and
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00:25:27.859 --> 00:25:29.279
the pair drove up.
359
00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:30.119
To her road.
360
00:25:31.779 --> 00:25:35.460
They got out of the car, walked up the street,
361
00:25:37.750 --> 00:25:43.589
And Katrina Walsh walked up to Sadie Hartley's door, knocked
362
00:25:43.650 --> 00:25:49.670
on the door and delivered these flowers in person. And
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00:25:49.710 --> 00:25:52.930
all the while, Sarah Williams was hiding behind a parked
364
00:25:52.990 --> 00:25:59.049
car watching her pray. And when Sadie Hartley asked who
365
00:25:59.109 --> 00:26:03.430
the flowers were from, Katrina Walsh said she couldn't remember
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00:26:03.470 --> 00:26:04.079
and she ran off.
367
00:26:05.849 --> 00:26:08.750
Here you have this person in front of you who
368
00:26:08.829 --> 00:26:11.930
is a human being, somebody who's asking you a question,
369
00:26:12.130 --> 00:26:15.339
and I think this is the first time that Sadie
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00:26:15.470 --> 00:26:20.240
becomes that real living, breathing person that Walsh has been
371
00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:23.500
writing about quite abstractly in her diaries.
372
00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:29.039
Sadie Hartley was unnerved by the delivery of the bunch
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00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:33.250
of flowers and the strange woman who delivered them. She
374
00:26:33.329 --> 00:26:37.450
contacted Ian Johnston in Switzerland, who knew nothing about the
375
00:26:37.529 --> 00:26:44.519
creepy delivery as Sadie described it to him. For the
376
00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:48.599
practice run, Katrina Walsh had driven to Helmshaw in her
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00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:54.079
own car. Williams decided it would be unwise to use
378
00:26:54.119 --> 00:26:57.029
their personal vehicles on the night of the real event.
379
00:26:58.210 --> 00:27:03.549
On Sunday, January the 10th, 2016, Sarah Williams set about
380
00:27:03.609 --> 00:27:06.269
looking for a suitable second vehicle.
381
00:27:07.569 --> 00:27:10.089
So they have to buy a car that won't be
382
00:27:10.190 --> 00:27:14.150
identified as belonging to either of them. Williams and Walsh
383
00:27:14.549 --> 00:27:18.230
search for one and eventually purchase an elderly Renault Clio.
384
00:27:19.170 --> 00:27:22.029
But they do more than that. They also make sure
385
00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:26.349
that the number plate, which is on the Clio, is
386
00:27:26.470 --> 00:27:30.059
changed so it doesn't get recognised by the automated number
387
00:27:30.119 --> 00:27:35.119
recognition system used by most British police forces. And Walsh
388
00:27:35.160 --> 00:27:37.539
does quite a clever job of turning the number three
389
00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:40.339
into the number eight within a black tape.
390
00:27:41.380 --> 00:27:46.809
On Tuesday, January the 12th, 2016, Sarah Williams made what
391
00:27:46.890 --> 00:27:49.450
she thought was another clever move.
392
00:27:50.069 --> 00:27:53.259
Williams purchased a pair of boots that were several sizes
393
00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:56.269
too large for her so that that would throw the
394
00:27:56.309 --> 00:27:58.369
police off the scent and they would think that the
395
00:27:58.390 --> 00:28:01.170
perpetrator was somebody who was male or at least somebody
396
00:28:01.210 --> 00:28:03.380
who was much bigger than she was.
397
00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:08.420
On the 14th of January, Sarah Williams went to work
398
00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:13.619
at the Chill Factory as normal. At 3pm, she texted
399
00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:17.160
David Hardwick to tell him she was feeling unwell and
400
00:28:17.259 --> 00:28:25.430
going home early. An hour later, Hardwick visited Williams at
401
00:28:25.490 --> 00:28:31.809
home and left soon after. A little while later, Hardwick
402
00:28:31.849 --> 00:28:37.099
received a text from Williams. Just had another cup of tea.
403
00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:39.859
Going to switch light off and have a nap now.
404
00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:43.079
Will ring when I wake up as long as not late.
405
00:28:44.619 --> 00:28:50.049
Katrina Walsh arrived at Sarah Williams' home. Several minutes later,
406
00:28:50.329 --> 00:28:53.349
the two women emerged from the house and walked to
407
00:28:53.390 --> 00:28:59.180
the parked Renault Clio. Walsh returned alone to Williams' home.
408
00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:08.029
On the night of the 14th of January, 2016, Walsh
409
00:29:08.180 --> 00:29:14.369
drives to Williams' home and stays there, incidentally, to look
410
00:29:14.430 --> 00:29:18.190
after Sarah Williams' dog as well as everything else. while
411
00:29:18.230 --> 00:29:22.319
Sarah Williams takes the Renault Clio, which has been hidden
412
00:29:22.359 --> 00:29:26.440
in a car park nearby, and drives it from there
413
00:29:26.940 --> 00:29:32.789
to Sadie Hartley's house. Sadie Hartley that day has been
414
00:29:32.809 --> 00:29:35.609
at work in a perfectly normal way in her office.
415
00:29:37.009 --> 00:29:38.829
She goes home at the end of the afternoon and
416
00:29:38.890 --> 00:29:41.529
in fact goes out to tend to her horse in
417
00:29:41.549 --> 00:29:46.170
the Sables. She gets back to the house about half
418
00:29:46.230 --> 00:29:47.579
past seven.
419
00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:54.460
Sarah Williams parked her car and very calmly walked up
420
00:29:54.759 --> 00:29:59.500
to Sadie Hartley's door. And as soon as Sadie Hartley
421
00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:03.309
opened the door, She lunged at her with this stun gun,
422
00:30:04.009 --> 00:30:10.589
incapacitating her. And then she stabbed her over 40 times.
423
00:30:13.210 --> 00:30:16.670
And the whole murder, the whole attack took just four
424
00:30:16.759 --> 00:30:17.339
minutes and 40 seconds.
425
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:28.150
After 17 months of meticulous planning, Sadie Hartley, the woman
426
00:30:28.230 --> 00:30:31.630
standing between Sarah Williams and the love of her life,
427
00:30:31.769 --> 00:30:33.589
Ian Johnston, was dead.
428
00:30:34.650 --> 00:30:38.369
So in four minutes, she has ended the life of
429
00:30:38.410 --> 00:30:45.549
Sadie Hartley with 41 stab wounds. It's the most depraved, disgusting,
430
00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:50.259
horrifying crime. You cannot imagine the brutality of that.
431
00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:51.880
And yet.
432
00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:56.619
Sarah Williams is as cool as could be. She's very careful.
433
00:30:56.660 --> 00:30:59.690
She closes the door. She takes the murder weapon with
434
00:30:59.730 --> 00:31:03.329
her and, of course, the stun gun back to the car,
435
00:31:04.450 --> 00:31:08.319
gets in the car, drives back to Katrina Walsh.
436
00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:13.619
Williams met Walsh at a designated rendezvous in a car
437
00:31:13.680 --> 00:31:18.819
park at Ellesmere Port. They abandoned the Renault Clio and
438
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:25.029
drove home in Walsh's car. Once home, Williams had a
439
00:31:25.109 --> 00:31:27.109
plan to cover their tracks.
440
00:31:27.829 --> 00:31:32.069
She gave all of the evidence, all of the incriminating
441
00:31:32.170 --> 00:31:35.390
evidence to Walsh to get rid of. So she just
442
00:31:35.450 --> 00:31:38.259
wants it off her plate. She doesn't want any connection
443
00:31:38.380 --> 00:31:41.500
with these items. And she believes that Walsh is just
444
00:31:41.539 --> 00:31:45.680
going to dispose of them. And Williams will later ensure
445
00:31:45.700 --> 00:31:48.059
that there is no forensic evidence on her. She'll have
446
00:31:48.099 --> 00:31:49.839
a bath. She'll have a bit of a cleanup when
447
00:31:49.900 --> 00:31:53.660
she gets home. But all of that really compelling evidence
448
00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:55.400
is now in the hands of Walsh.
449
00:31:57.420 --> 00:32:00.359
The following day, Williams went to work at the chill
450
00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:06.769
factory as normal. Katrina Walsh also went to work at
451
00:32:06.849 --> 00:32:11.430
Collins Farm Stables, taking the incriminating evidence with her.
452
00:32:14.660 --> 00:32:17.420
Most of us, when we hurt someone, when we upset somebody,
453
00:32:17.660 --> 00:32:20.329
we feel guilty about it. We feel bad. We're not
454
00:32:20.410 --> 00:32:24.329
quite ourselves afterwards. But Williams is completely different. She's able
455
00:32:24.369 --> 00:32:26.690
to just pick up and get on with her life.
456
00:32:27.130 --> 00:32:29.400
And I'm sure she's thinking about the next stage of
457
00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:31.759
the plan here of getting Ian Johnston back.
458
00:32:34.759 --> 00:32:38.400
The day after the murder on Friday the 15th of January,
459
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:42.619
a concerned colleague of Sadie Hartley's called the police, who
460
00:32:42.700 --> 00:32:45.609
went to the house in Helmshaw and found her lying
461
00:32:45.700 --> 00:32:52.309
dead in the hallway. Former Detective Superintendent David Swindle has
462
00:32:52.349 --> 00:32:56.529
been the attending senior officer at numerous murder scenes.
463
00:32:57.910 --> 00:33:00.470
One of the big things is looking at the victim,
464
00:33:01.069 --> 00:33:03.109
is to find out what there is in the victim's
465
00:33:03.150 --> 00:33:07.049
life that would lead to a possible motive, and the
466
00:33:07.089 --> 00:33:13.690
victim and the associates. So the victim's associate was Johnston.
467
00:33:14.109 --> 00:33:16.990
He was on a skiing holiday at the time, so
468
00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:21.740
he was contacted. And when he was contacted, he spoke
469
00:33:21.859 --> 00:33:28.099
about an obsessive ex-partner, and the police identified who that
470
00:33:28.140 --> 00:33:30.000
was with the assistance of Johnston.
471
00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:35.279
Johnston also told the police about the strange late-night delivery
472
00:33:35.319 --> 00:33:38.940
of flowers Sadie had told him about the previous week.
473
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:44.359
The information provided by Johnston to the police was enough
474
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:49.279
for them to bring Sarah Williams in for questioning. On Sunday,
475
00:33:49.339 --> 00:33:53.940
the 17th of January, 2016, she was arrested.
476
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:58.200
Williams was arrested at 3 o'clock in the morning when
477
00:33:58.220 --> 00:34:02.470
she was at her own home. Her demeanor was quite calm.
478
00:34:02.630 --> 00:34:06.849
It was quite cool. She didn't appear to be freaking out.
479
00:34:06.950 --> 00:34:10.449
She didn't appear to be overly upset or overly distressed.
480
00:34:10.869 --> 00:34:13.860
And this was a persona that she maintained throughout her
481
00:34:13.889 --> 00:34:17.460
police interview. She seemed very unaffected by the fact that
482
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:20.780
she was being arrested for the most serious of crimes.
483
00:34:21.780 --> 00:34:26.219
When questioned, Sarah Williams denied any knowledge or involvement in
484
00:34:26.260 --> 00:34:31.099
the murder of Sadie Hartley. After four interviews, she declined
485
00:34:31.139 --> 00:34:35.840
to answer any further questions and only replied, no comment.
486
00:34:37.940 --> 00:34:42.500
The police then began investigating the strange flower delivery on
487
00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:44.719
the evening of the 7th of January.
488
00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:48.739
The UK is one of the world's most watched nations
489
00:34:48.920 --> 00:34:52.579
in terms of the CCTV and surveillance that we have here.
490
00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:56.389
So every element of the planning of this murder was
491
00:34:56.449 --> 00:35:01.280
captured on CCTV. There was AMPR data as well, automatic
492
00:35:01.340 --> 00:35:05.010
number plate recognition. So there was this digital trail that
493
00:35:05.050 --> 00:35:06.739
these two killers left behind them.
494
00:35:07.750 --> 00:35:10.449
On the night of January 7th, the night of the
495
00:35:10.510 --> 00:35:15.550
dry run, CCTV from Sadie's neighbor's house revealed a figure
496
00:35:15.570 --> 00:35:19.789
of about 5'6 wearing a baseball cap. It was unclear
497
00:35:19.849 --> 00:35:23.739
if this person was male or female. Then the police
498
00:35:23.820 --> 00:35:28.590
traced the movements of a silver Vauxhall captured driving towards Helmshaw,
499
00:35:28.969 --> 00:35:32.690
stopping at a Tesco store in Haslingdon and arriving near
500
00:35:32.769 --> 00:35:37.090
Sadie Hartley's home. The owner of the car was Katrina Walsh.
501
00:35:38.699 --> 00:35:43.619
On Monday, the 18th of January, 2016, Katrina Walsh was
502
00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:48.719
arrested at the riding stables where she worked. Unlike Sarah Williams,
503
00:35:49.099 --> 00:35:52.409
Katrina was unable to stay quiet.
504
00:35:53.130 --> 00:35:56.969
Walsh absolutely spills the beans. Before she even gets into
505
00:35:56.989 --> 00:36:01.719
the interview room, she's telling the custody sergeant absolutely everything
506
00:36:01.800 --> 00:36:04.980
about what's happened, to the extent that the custody sergeant
507
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:07.480
actually has to say to her, stop, save this.
508
00:36:07.340 --> 00:36:08.039
For the interview.
509
00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:11.679
So the contrast between these two suspects is really striking.
510
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:14.010
She wants to frame me for it or kill me
511
00:36:14.070 --> 00:36:15.050
and frame me for it.
512
00:36:15.349 --> 00:36:18.610
Walsh claimed that Williams had committed the murder and that
513
00:36:18.690 --> 00:36:22.869
she had unwittingly been caught up in it. she accompanied
514
00:36:22.909 --> 00:36:26.070
the police to the stables where she worked and revealed
515
00:36:26.110 --> 00:36:28.690
where she'd hidden all the incriminating evidence.
516
00:36:29.750 --> 00:36:32.789
Everything that had been used in the murder was right
517
00:36:32.809 --> 00:36:36.590
there for them. So, in the ground, you had the knife,
518
00:36:38.119 --> 00:36:42.579
the stun gun and the boots, the boots which had
519
00:36:42.900 --> 00:36:46.539
some of Sadie Hartley's blood on them. And in the eaves,
520
00:36:46.599 --> 00:36:50.920
you've got Katrina Walsh's diaries which detail... in, you know,
521
00:36:50.940 --> 00:36:55.119
sort of minute detail of how they planned Sadie Hartley's murder.
522
00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:59.739
And the police also discovered that Sarah Williams hadn't been
523
00:36:59.800 --> 00:37:03.719
as clever as she thought in disposing of incriminating evidence.
524
00:37:04.420 --> 00:37:07.130
When she got home, she had a shower or a bath.
525
00:37:07.309 --> 00:37:10.389
She cleaned up with bleach. But there were things that
526
00:37:10.469 --> 00:37:14.710
she missed, so the police were able to get some
527
00:37:14.769 --> 00:37:18.010
trace evidence from the bath where there were traces of
528
00:37:18.170 --> 00:37:23.590
Sadie's DNA. They found on Sarah's spectacles some particles of
529
00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:27.079
blood that had been transferred during the murder. So she
530
00:37:27.139 --> 00:37:29.800
thought that she'd done a good cleanup, but she certainly hadn't.
531
00:37:30.260 --> 00:37:35.179
Williams is now in custody under suspicion. Walsh is now
532
00:37:35.500 --> 00:37:42.300
in custody under suspicion. And Walsh provides, essentially, the evidence
533
00:37:42.340 --> 00:37:46.760
to convict Williams. She has always maintained that throughout the
534
00:37:47.219 --> 00:37:49.619
plot that they hatched together, she was never going to
535
00:37:49.659 --> 00:37:52.059
be at what she called the sharp end of the killing.
536
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:54.380
She wasn't going to do the killing. She was just
537
00:37:54.460 --> 00:37:57.639
going to assist. But of course, British law insists that
538
00:37:57.699 --> 00:38:00.960
if you are collaborative in a murder, you are equally
539
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:01.739
guilty of murder.
540
00:38:06.989 --> 00:38:14.469
January 20th, 2016. Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were charged
541
00:38:14.489 --> 00:38:20.610
with the murder of Sadie Hartley. Both women denied murdering her.
542
00:38:22.139 --> 00:38:27.159
On August 3rd, 2016, the trial of Sarah Williams and
543
00:38:27.219 --> 00:38:30.559
Katrina Walsh began at Preston Crown Court.
544
00:38:31.300 --> 00:38:35.530
They both pointed the finger at each other, but of
545
00:38:35.610 --> 00:38:42.269
course the prosecution gave a motive. Sarah Williams was to
546
00:38:42.289 --> 00:38:44.630
get rid of her love rival, who she thought was
547
00:38:44.670 --> 00:38:46.929
standing in the way of her being with her perfect man,
548
00:38:47.010 --> 00:38:52.210
Ian Johnston. And the motive they gave for Katrina Walsh
549
00:38:52.570 --> 00:38:57.760
was to help her friend, but also that she found
550
00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:01.719
the idea of plotting this murder very exciting.
551
00:39:03.739 --> 00:39:07.719
Just the salacious nature of it, everything that came out
552
00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:12.260
in court, the level of planning that they went through.
553
00:39:12.280 --> 00:39:17.840
And the fact that they were two women who murdered
554
00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:22.019
another woman, and for what really? A sordid affair that
555
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:27.260
was no longer even happening. And the way that they
556
00:39:27.300 --> 00:39:30.199
kind of viewed it as some kind of game. and
557
00:39:30.219 --> 00:39:33.980
they forgot in all of that that it wasn't a game,
558
00:39:34.099 --> 00:39:36.679
and they weren't in a novel, and they weren't characters,
559
00:39:37.099 --> 00:39:40.320
and that she was actually a person.
560
00:39:42.849 --> 00:39:46.989
Sarah Williams decided to take the stand in her defense.
561
00:39:47.650 --> 00:39:47.929
There was.
562
00:39:49.059 --> 00:39:54.619
Absolutely no sense of remorse there. The prosecution, I remember,
563
00:39:55.320 --> 00:40:00.460
were trying to talk about Sadie Hartley's family, her daughter,
564
00:40:00.579 --> 00:40:04.050
who had just got engaged, and trying to get her
565
00:40:04.119 --> 00:40:07.969
to think about how the family would feel about their
566
00:40:08.010 --> 00:40:14.349
murdered mother. Sarah Williams stood in the dock, very calm
567
00:40:14.929 --> 00:40:20.460
and very arrogant, very nonchalant. and just denied having anything to.
568
00:40:20.389 --> 00:40:20.840
Do with it.
569
00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:26.880
Unlike Sarah Williams, Katrina Walsh chose not to defend herself
570
00:40:27.260 --> 00:40:27.699
in court.
571
00:40:28.460 --> 00:40:33.199
Walsh's conduct in court was quite different from that of Williams.
572
00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:37.369
Whilst Williams was quite confident, quite self-assured, Walsh just kind
573
00:40:37.409 --> 00:40:40.429
of shrunk into herself, and her conduct was quite similar
574
00:40:40.829 --> 00:40:44.630
to that of her early police interviews. So she didn't
575
00:40:44.690 --> 00:40:47.389
make eye contact with anybody. She sat with her head down.
576
00:40:47.800 --> 00:40:50.639
And this is a very kind of childlike response to
577
00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:53.469
the situation in which she finds herself. She just wants
578
00:40:53.550 --> 00:40:55.969
it all to go away and that if I don't
579
00:40:56.030 --> 00:40:58.030
look at people, they can't look at me.
580
00:40:59.710 --> 00:41:06.260
The trial lasted for seven weeks. On August 17th, 2016,
581
00:41:06.260 --> 00:41:10.119
Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were found guilty of the
582
00:41:10.159 --> 00:41:12.019
murder of Sadie Hartley.
583
00:41:12.860 --> 00:41:14.239
So Sarah Williams was.
584
00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:17.820
Sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 30
585
00:41:17.820 --> 00:41:21.760
years and another life sentence for Katrina Walsh, but a
586
00:41:21.820 --> 00:41:26.110
minimum of 25 years. And despite Katrina Walsh not actually
587
00:41:26.650 --> 00:41:30.230
being there at the murder scene on the night of
588
00:41:30.269 --> 00:41:33.989
the murder, she was found to be just as culpable
589
00:41:34.889 --> 00:41:35.769
and just as guilty.
590
00:41:37.550 --> 00:41:42.159
When handing down the sentences, the trial judge was unrestrained
591
00:41:42.539 --> 00:41:43.460
in his summations.
592
00:41:44.820 --> 00:41:50.989
Mr Justice Turner, in his sentencing remarks, points out that
593
00:41:51.070 --> 00:41:56.849
in contrast to the life-affirming good spirits of Sadie Hartley,
594
00:41:57.849 --> 00:42:02.800
these are two vile, despicable women. And he says, and
595
00:42:02.860 --> 00:42:07.260
I quote, but let no one make the mistake of
596
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:11.099
thinking this is a crime of passion. It was a
597
00:42:11.199 --> 00:42:20.480
crime of obsession. of arrogance, of barbarity. But above all,
598
00:42:21.300 --> 00:42:23.039
it was a crime of pure evil.
599
00:42:27.519 --> 00:42:31.039
When Sarah Williams wanted a man, no one was going
600
00:42:31.059 --> 00:42:34.440
to get in her way. Any love rival.
601
00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:35.699
Became an enemy.
602
00:42:36.519 --> 00:42:40.510
Katrina Walsh was her willing accomplice, thrilled by the game
603
00:42:40.550 --> 00:42:45.090
of catching their prey. Sadie Hartley had no idea she
604
00:42:45.150 --> 00:42:48.989
was part of their sick game when she was ruthlessly
605
00:42:49.090 --> 00:42:53.880
murdered by these two women, making Sarah Williams and Katrina
606
00:42:53.920 --> 00:42:57.639
Walsh two of the world's most evil killers.
1
00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:15.400
January the 7th, 2016, Helmshaw, Lancashire, England. 60-year-old Sadie Hartley
2
00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:18.820
was home alone around 9 p.m. in the evening when
3
00:00:18.859 --> 00:00:23.039
she answered the doorbell. Standing there with a bunch of
4
00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:27.320
flowers was Katrina Walsh, a woman Sadie had never met.
5
00:00:28.179 --> 00:00:30.800
Sadie asked her who the flowers were from, and Walsh
6
00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:33.329
just kind of uttered something like,' I don't remember,' and
7
00:00:33.369 --> 00:00:34.390
then scuffled away.
8
00:00:35.109 --> 00:00:38.429
This was a dry run for a murder plot meticulously
9
00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:39.880
planned by two women.
10
00:00:40.490 --> 00:00:43.500
And all the while, Sarah Williams was hiding behind a
11
00:00:43.539 --> 00:00:45.500
parked car, watching her prey.
12
00:00:45.939 --> 00:00:50.380
Seven days later, when Sadie answered the doorbell again, 500,000
13
00:00:50.380 --> 00:00:54.500
volts of electricity knocked her to the floor.
14
00:00:54.859 --> 00:00:58.179
Essentially, there was no chance that she would survive it.
15
00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:02.719
Sadie Hartley lay helpless as she was stabbed to death
16
00:01:02.979 --> 00:01:04.120
by Sarah Williams.
17
00:01:04.859 --> 00:01:10.750
It was a crime of obsession, of arrogance, of barbarity.
18
00:01:11.909 --> 00:01:15.269
But above all, it was a crime of pure evil.
19
00:01:16.689 --> 00:01:20.950
In four minutes and 40 seconds, Sarah Williams had dispensed
20
00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:25.180
of Sadie Hartley. She calmly left the scene and returned
21
00:01:25.219 --> 00:01:30.400
to her accomplice, Katrina Walsh. After 17 months of planning,
22
00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:35.040
an innocent woman lay dead. A woman Sarah Williams and
23
00:01:35.079 --> 00:01:39.859
Katrina Walsh didn't even know, making them two of the
24
00:01:39.980 --> 00:02:10.340
world's most evil killers. 1993, the Wirral, Northwest England. 12-year-old
25
00:02:10.460 --> 00:02:14.639
Sarah Williams was passionate about horses and a very good
26
00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:16.300
equestrian sportswoman.
27
00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:21.199
She met a riding instructor much older than she was,
28
00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:23.439
a good 20 years or more older than she was,
29
00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:26.900
called Katrina Walsh, at a local riding stables.
30
00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:31.219
Despite the age gap, the two women bonded through their
31
00:02:31.310 --> 00:02:36.620
shared love of horses... and became firm friends. Over the
32
00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:41.780
next few years, they formed an intense, almost inseparable relationship.
33
00:02:43.020 --> 00:02:46.800
When people saw the friendship, the very close friendship between
34
00:02:46.990 --> 00:02:51.009
Williams and Walsh, because they spent so much time together
35
00:02:51.250 --> 00:02:53.689
in and out of each other's houses, in each other's
36
00:02:53.750 --> 00:02:56.990
pockets all the time, I think there were some suspicions
37
00:02:57.069 --> 00:02:59.129
that they were more than just friends, that this was
38
00:02:59.189 --> 00:03:00.689
an intimate relationship.
39
00:03:01.469 --> 00:03:05.099
As Williams grew up, she became known as an incorrigible
40
00:03:05.219 --> 00:03:07.960
flirt and had a series of male lovers.
41
00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:11.900
I think Williams does very much see men as a challenge,
42
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.150
especially married men. I think this idea of going out
43
00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:19.930
and turning on the charm and having somebody fall for you,
44
00:03:20.349 --> 00:03:22.169
it's something that she finds quite appealing.
45
00:03:22.729 --> 00:03:26.310
When Sarah Williams set her sights on a man, no
46
00:03:26.449 --> 00:03:29.719
one was going to get in her way. Her best friend,
47
00:03:29.789 --> 00:03:33.180
Katrina Walsh, was only too willing to help her get
48
00:03:33.259 --> 00:03:36.939
what she wanted. And what Sarah Williams wanted was a
49
00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:41.199
man called Ian Johnston, whom she was in a relationship with.
50
00:03:41.659 --> 00:03:46.060
He describes her being really friendly and them getting on
51
00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:50.419
straight away. And then one night, after they'd known each
52
00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.789
other For a few months, she turns up at his
53
00:03:53.830 --> 00:03:59.650
house in a short skirt, red heels, and the intimacy
54
00:03:59.729 --> 00:04:04.550
was immediate, and the relationship was physical straightaway.
55
00:04:05.349 --> 00:04:08.509
Williams had met the man she wanted to marry, but
56
00:04:08.530 --> 00:04:12.750
he and Johnston had a long-term partner called Sadie Hartley.
57
00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:17.459
Williams and Walsh decided that Sadie Hartley was a problem
58
00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:19.319
that needed to go away.
59
00:04:20.209 --> 00:04:22.750
This didn't happen in the heat of the moment. This
60
00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:26.329
was a murder plot that these two women had spent
61
00:04:26.329 --> 00:04:30.889
17 months planning, and I think that's what makes it
62
00:04:30.990 --> 00:04:36.850
so horrific. This wasn't a crime of passion. This was
63
00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:41.040
a crime of obsession. She was obsessed with Sadie Hartley's partner,
64
00:04:41.329 --> 00:04:45.120
Ian Johnston. She wanted to get rid of her, and
65
00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:45.439
she did.
66
00:04:46.310 --> 00:04:50.680
Williams and Walsh thought they'd committed the perfect murder. They
67
00:04:50.689 --> 00:04:53.500
were in it together until they were caught.
68
00:04:54.399 --> 00:05:00.319
Williams maintains her innocence steadfastly and Walsh confesses but doesn't
69
00:05:00.339 --> 00:05:04.720
confess to killing Hartley herself. She says Williams did it.
70
00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:12.740
The friendship is fractured. Williams absolutely brazenly fronts it up
71
00:05:13.259 --> 00:05:17.509
and says, nothing to do with me. Williams is still
72
00:05:18.730 --> 00:05:20.709
living in her own parallel universe.
73
00:05:24.370 --> 00:05:29.819
These killer stories begin in 1960. Katrina Walsh was born
74
00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:35.360
on February the 4th in Middlesex. Sarah Williams was born
75
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:40.819
21 years later on the 8th of May, 1981, in Merseyside.
76
00:05:41.500 --> 00:05:45.889
Sarah Williams was an only child, daughter of an electrician,
77
00:05:47.170 --> 00:05:51.529
Perfectly reasonable, apparently, as a girl. Had a lazy eye.
78
00:05:51.889 --> 00:05:55.839
We saw her get bullied a bit at school. She
79
00:05:55.860 --> 00:06:01.639
went to a private school. Well-educated and capable. Very capable.
80
00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:06.240
But when she got into her teens, as she grew older,
81
00:06:06.550 --> 00:06:09.810
she realised that she was quite attractive to men. And
82
00:06:09.850 --> 00:06:13.089
this was something that she really seized upon. So those
83
00:06:13.149 --> 00:06:16.860
feelings of shame and inadequacy that she'd had when she
84
00:06:16.899 --> 00:06:21.839
was younger, they were counteracted by this validation that she
85
00:06:21.860 --> 00:06:23.680
got from the attention of men.
86
00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:31.689
Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh met in 1993. Williams loved
87
00:06:31.750 --> 00:06:35.129
horses and went to the riding school where Walsh stabled
88
00:06:35.189 --> 00:06:39.040
her own horse and was a riding instructor. They became
89
00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:41.000
firm and enduring friends.
90
00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:45.870
Was there a sexual relationship between Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh,
91
00:06:45.910 --> 00:06:48.569
a woman much, much older than her, who suffered from
92
00:06:48.629 --> 00:06:52.350
terrible alopecia and almost no hair? She was almost always
93
00:06:52.389 --> 00:06:55.529
wearing a bandana or a hat or a cap. If
94
00:06:55.569 --> 00:06:58.389
you look at the pictures of them both, they couldn't
95
00:06:58.430 --> 00:07:02.350
be more different. But there was something very strong, something
96
00:07:02.490 --> 00:07:05.470
very powerful keeping that relationship together.
97
00:07:06.889 --> 00:07:10.769
When Williams was 13 years old, she claimed to have
98
00:07:10.810 --> 00:07:14.379
been assaulted by a man who had stopped to fix
99
00:07:14.420 --> 00:07:17.720
his car. And this was an allegation that the police
100
00:07:17.779 --> 00:07:22.439
took very seriously and they investigated it. There were appeals
101
00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:25.779
for information from the public put out at the time.
102
00:07:26.259 --> 00:07:29.970
So this is a very pivotal moment in Williams' life,
103
00:07:30.389 --> 00:07:33.149
whether or not this story was a true one.
104
00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:38.040
Nobody was ever charged with the abduction, and there were
105
00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:46.569
suspicions that Williams had made the whole story up. In 1999,
106
00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:50.370
when Sarah Williams was 17 years old and still at school,
107
00:07:50.870 --> 00:07:56.170
she met 57-year-old married father David Hardwick at the riding school.
108
00:07:57.430 --> 00:08:01.750
Hardwick is a shadowy figure throughout this story. Hardwick is
109
00:08:01.790 --> 00:08:05.180
her benefactor, her sugar daddy, He gives her enormous amounts
110
00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:08.310
of money over the years. He's married to someone much
111
00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:12.110
more of his own age. They never divorce. Williams knows
112
00:08:12.170 --> 00:08:15.269
from a very early age that the power her sexual
113
00:08:15.290 --> 00:08:18.509
drive has, and she uses it to her full advantage.
114
00:08:21.310 --> 00:08:23.759
Sarah Williams left school at the age of 18. From
115
00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:25.899
2005 to 2013, she worked for a bank selling personal insurance.
116
00:08:32.710 --> 00:08:36.549
In 2006, she moved away from home and bought her
117
00:08:36.629 --> 00:08:41.559
first house, largely bankrolled by David Hardwick, who also paid
118
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her a weekly allowance of 320 pounds.
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Hardwick is a consistent support to Williams throughout her life. Now,
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you can speculate about why. You can speculate about what
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was Hardwick getting out of it. On the surface, not
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very much. apart, I suspect, from a great deal of sex.
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William's best friend, Katrina Walsh, married her husband, Kevin, in 1984,
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nine years before she met Sarah Williams.
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Walsh was quite an eccentric character. She was somebody who
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shared William's love of horse riding, and that is how
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they met. She was into tarot cards. She was quite
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heavily tattooed. And she was a biker. She was interested
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in motorbikes. And these were some passions that she shared
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with her husband, Kevin.
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And Kevin and Katrina, and then, believe it or not,
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Hardwick and Williams, develop a sort of foursome. And they
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go on expeditions together. In a horse box, they take
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their horses. It's got sleeping accommodation. It's a very big
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horse box. And at one point, Kevin Walsh, Katrina's husband,
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describes it as a purple passion wagon. And then in 2008,
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Katrina Walsh and Kevin divorce. He's had an affair with
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somebody else. He goes off. He moves to Kattrick in
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North Yorkshire and leaves the Wirral behind him.
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He felt that the relationship between Sarah Williams and Katrina
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Walsh was dysfunctional.
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There was always this.
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Thing where he felt like if he hadn't left, Katrina
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would never have got as close as she did with
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Sarah because he would have been there to stop that
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from happening.
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But Williams was also a long way from being monogamous.
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I think she had a great many affairs, probably to
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the consternation or perhaps to the amusement of Hardwick. He
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certainly didn't seem to object.
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The day before her 30th birthday, Sarah Williams was driving
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on the M60 motorway in Manchester when she passed the
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unique structure of the city's indoor ski center, the Chill Factory.
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She now knew what she wanted as a birthday present
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from her boyfriend, David Hardwick.
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Hardwick was not as enthusiastic about Williams' new hobby as
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she was, because he was slightly older, perhaps less inclined
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to engage in this kind of vigorous physical activity. But
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Williams dragged him along, and I think part of her
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enjoyed the attention that she got from men at the
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Chill Factory, but also the jealousy, I think, that Hardwick
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would have felt when he saw these relationships developing.
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Williams and Hardwick became regulars at the Chill Factory. Williams
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loved being there so much, she left her job to
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join a ski travel company based in the complex as
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a sales advisor.
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Williams, who is by now a rather athletic woman, she's
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more than 5'10, she's strong, big shoulders, muscular body, rapidly
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becomes a really rather good skier. She really enjoys it.
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It becomes her second home, almost. Selling insurance is not
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quite as much fun as the dry ski slopes.
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While working at the chill factory, Sarah Williams had several
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romantic affairs, mainly with married men who were ski instructors.
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The affairs that she has with married men, they only
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end when she decides that they have ended, and when
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the men decide that they've had enough, she reacts very
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badly indeed.
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In August 2013, Sarah Williams met 57-year-old retired fireman Ian Johnston,
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an expert telemark skier who was working as an instructor
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at the Chill Factory.
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He's actually been in a relationship for some time at
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this point, for a number of years, with a businesswoman,
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a tiny bit older than he is in her later
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50s at this point, called Sadie Hartley. But it's been
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on and off. And Johnston, well, he falls for the flirt.
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He falls for the femme fatale, or as she was
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later to describe herself, the she-devil.
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Sarah Williams and Ian Johnston's illicit relationship was developing rapidly.
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Williams began telling her friends that she'd met her ideal
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man and she was determined.
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To keep him. We have an extraordinary series of relationships.
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We have Williams and Walsh, closer now that Kevin Walsh
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has gone off. We have Williams and Hardwick. We have
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Williams and Johnston. And we have Johnston and Sadie Hartley.
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A great amalgam of relationships. All of them in a
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way driven by Williams' sexual desire.
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Sarah Williams was besotted with Ian Johnston. Although he was
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no longer seeing Sadie when he met Williams, they remained close.
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He was definitely somebody who, you know, was very confident
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with women, was used to getting lots of attention, enjoyed
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that attention. And so the fact that he ended up
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having this affair with Sarah Williams felt like it could
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easily have happened with his sort of personality type.
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Sarah Williams would watch for when Ian Johnston would come
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to the Chill Factory. She would get colleagues to tell
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her if his car was in the car park. Ian
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Johnston was her perfect man. He was a man that
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she wanted to marry. So I guess she saw... Sadie
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Hartley as the obstacle to that. She was the enemy,
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and she had to be got rid of.
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Sadie Hartley lived in the village of Helmshaw in Lancashire.
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She was a divorced mother with two adult children, a
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successful woman who ran her own medical conference business, and
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she also loved riding her horse that she kept at
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a local stable. In September 2014, Sarah Williams sent a
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letter to Sadie Hartley.
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In this letter, Sarah Williams personally attacks Sadie Hartley and
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adds in that the sex with Ian is fantastic and
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they can't get enough of each other and essentially said
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they were having sex all the time. and it was
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the best sex she'd ever had.
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And what is actually said within the letter is very
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revealing about the kind of person that Williams is. She
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is not putting the responsibility onto Ian. She's putting all
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of the responsibility onto Sadie. This isn't about Ian's continual
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decision to engage in an affair with her. This is
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about Sadie acting as the barrier to her having a
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more full relationship with Ian Johnston.
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But the letter didn't work to split them up because
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it was just a few weeks later that, in fact,
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Sadie and Ian moved in together.
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She thinks that she's justified in behaving in this way.
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She feels entitled to this man. So all of the
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behavior that she engages in, she thinks is perfectly reasonable.
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The letter did not deter Sadie Hartley or disrupt her
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relationship with Ian Johnston.
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Well, that just makes Williams even more furious. She hasn't
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managed to split up Hartley and Johnston to get Johnston back.
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In fact, rather the opposite. I think probably Johnston felt
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more loyal now to Sadie Hartley than he had done before.
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In October 2014, before moving in with Sadie Hartley, Ian
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Johnston officially ended his relationship with Sarah Williams.
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What has just been a bit of fun, I think,
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on his part, he decides to call an end to this.
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But Williams doesn't accept this. She's the one who's in
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control in her relationship. She decides when they're over, and
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she simply does not accept his decision.
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Johnston's physical relationship with Williams was over, but they continued
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to text and see each other at the Chill Factory,
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where they both worked.
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These text messages were, like, quite explicit in nature. There
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were naked images in them. So although... Ian said their
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relationship had come to an end, there was an aspect
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of the relationship that was still going on.
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But she attached meaning to that communication that wasn't actually there.
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So it shows just how completely at odds both of
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these individuals were in terms of their understanding of what
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their relationship really was.
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At some point in the late summer of 2014, Williams
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and Walsh begin to have what are could only be
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called chilling conversations about getting rid of Williams's love rival,
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Sadie Hartley. Walsh starts to keep a diary of these conversations.
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At one point, I think she writes in it, she
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does sound like a totally evil bitch of Sadie Hartley.
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Nothing could, in fact, have been further from the truth
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But nevertheless, this is the venom that is supplied to
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Walsh by Williams.
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There were all sorts of things that Katrina Walsh wrote
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in that diary which really revealed, I suppose, what her
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true feelings were about what was going on.
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The fantasy of dispensing with Sadie Hartley became an obsessive
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pastime for Williams and Walsh.
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For this to go on for the period of time
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that it did, there were multiple opportunities for Walsh to
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put the brakes on it, to go and tell the police,
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to tell a friend, to actually get something done about
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what was going to happen, to basically stop this from happening,
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but she chose not to.
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By August 2015, ten months after Ian Johnston had officially
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ended ended his relationship with Sarah Williams, a murder plot
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that should have stayed in the realms of fantasy was
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becoming ever more real.
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In the late summer of 2014, Walsh suggests to Williams
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that she approach Walsh's ex-husband, Kevin, who happens to be
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a keen archer. to become, would you believe it, a
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00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:19.529
hitman and kill Sadie Hartley. Well, Kevin Walsh is absolutely
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having none of it. Absolutely turns it down flat. It's ridiculous.
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By this point, they've begun to enter what you might
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00:20:29.470 --> 00:20:31.069
describe as a parallel universe.
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There were burner phones acquired. It was something akin to
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a plot in a spy novel.
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And.
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Whilst they were planning all of this, at the same time,
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Katrina Walsh was detailing every single part of their planning
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in her diary. So literally every little thing that they did,
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she would put a note in her diary.
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00:21:00.220 --> 00:21:04.190
So they've got burner phones. Now they know that Johnston,
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who moved in with Sadie Hartley in November 2014, but
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they don't know where He lives with her. They don't
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00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:14.029
know where Sadie Hartley's house is. So, believe it or not,
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00:21:14.089 --> 00:21:18.589
they buy a tracker device for his car, which Sarah
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00:21:18.609 --> 00:21:19.809
Williams puts on his car.
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Sarah Williams bought the first tracker on Katrina Walsh's credit card.
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The tracker led them to the house Sadie Hartley now
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00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:34.220
shared with Ian Johnston in Helmshaw. the two women embarked
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00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:39.039
on several reconnaissance missions to familiarize themselves with the property
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and surrounding location.
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00:21:43.259 --> 00:21:48.680
So the plan is escalating quite steadily. There's been the
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00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:54.839
poison pen letter, the attempt to hire Kevin. We've got
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the burner phones. We have the tracker device on fire.
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00:21:58.900 --> 00:22:02.480
in Johnston's car. We now know where Johnston and Sadie
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00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:07.140
Hartley live. So they decide, and I think this is
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a time when perhaps Katrina Walsh makes a bigger contribution.
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Katrina suggests to Sarah Williams that it's gonna be much
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00:22:16.019 --> 00:22:20.000
easier to kill Sadie Hartley if she has a stun gun.
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Second of December, 2015, Greater Manchester. It was the night
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00:22:28.980 --> 00:22:33.769
of the Chill Factory's Christmas party. The first tracker placed
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00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:38.170
on Ian Johnston's car had failed. While the party was
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00:22:38.230 --> 00:22:42.109
in full swing, Sarah Williams left the party and attached
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00:22:42.190 --> 00:22:45.309
a second tracker to Ian Johnston's car.
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00:22:46.250 --> 00:22:48.759
So she buys this tracking device that she puts on
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Ian Johnston's vehicle, and there are times when she has
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to remove it from the vehicle, and when she does,
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00:22:55.099 --> 00:22:57.900
she's carrying it around in her own handbag And what
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00:22:57.940 --> 00:23:00.440
she doesn't realise is that the company she's bought the
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00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:04.460
tracker from are also able to access the data that
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the tracker is sending out. So this is a really
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00:23:08.470 --> 00:23:11.910
ill-conceived plan. It's very badly thought through.
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00:23:12.490 --> 00:23:16.539
The two women, Williams and Walsh, spend hours together plotting
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what they think and hope will be the perfect murder.
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Walsh is overjoyed at the involvement and Williams is utterly determined.
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They're going to kill. Sadie Hartley, come what may.
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On the 9th of December 2015, Sarah Williams and Katrina
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00:23:35.859 --> 00:23:39.740
Walsh boarded a ferry from Hull to Rotterdam and drove
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to Germany to buy a stun gun.
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Then it starts to really feel like they're actively thinking
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about doing it because now they're purchasing weapons.
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Early in the new year, on January the 4th, 2016,
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00:23:55.579 --> 00:24:00.259
Sarah Williams sent a text to Katrina Walsh.
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00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:05.140
Williams says to Walsh, the time's coming, go and do
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00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:08.829
your shopping. And so Walsh goes to Tesco and buys
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00:24:08.869 --> 00:24:12.029
a considerable kitchen knife and uses her club card, so
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there can't be any doubt about who bought the kitchen knife.
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Walsh was captured on CCTV at a Tesco supermarket in Broughton,
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buying a large kitchen knife. The following day, on January 5th,
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Sarah Williams retrieved the tracker from Ian Johnston's car. Again,
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00:24:32.430 --> 00:24:36.079
she placed the tracker in her handbag without turning it off.
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On January the 6th, Ian Johnston went to Switzerland on
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a skiing holiday. Sadie Hartley was going to join him
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ten days later. Until then, she was home alone in Helmshaw.
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Williams and Walsh knew Ian Johnston was out of the way,
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safely in Switzerland. They knew where Sadie Hartley lived, but
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neither of them knew her by sight. they decided that
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00:25:09.009 --> 00:25:13.769
a final reconnaissance mission was needed, a dry run for
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00:25:13.809 --> 00:25:14.349
the murder.
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The pair decided that they would drive up together to Lancashire.
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They bought a cheap bunch of flowers from Tesco, and
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the pair drove up.
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To her road.
360
00:25:31.779 --> 00:25:35.460
They got out of the car, walked up the street,
361
00:25:37.750 --> 00:25:43.589
And Katrina Walsh walked up to Sadie Hartley's door, knocked
362
00:25:43.650 --> 00:25:49.670
on the door and delivered these flowers in person. And
363
00:25:49.710 --> 00:25:52.930
all the while, Sarah Williams was hiding behind a parked
364
00:25:52.990 --> 00:25:59.049
car watching her pray. And when Sadie Hartley asked who
365
00:25:59.109 --> 00:26:03.430
the flowers were from, Katrina Walsh said she couldn't remember
366
00:26:03.470 --> 00:26:04.079
and she ran off.
367
00:26:05.849 --> 00:26:08.750
Here you have this person in front of you who
368
00:26:08.829 --> 00:26:11.930
is a human being, somebody who's asking you a question,
369
00:26:12.130 --> 00:26:15.339
and I think this is the first time that Sadie
370
00:26:15.470 --> 00:26:20.240
becomes that real living, breathing person that Walsh has been
371
00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:23.500
writing about quite abstractly in her diaries.
372
00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:29.039
Sadie Hartley was unnerved by the delivery of the bunch
373
00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:33.250
of flowers and the strange woman who delivered them. She
374
00:26:33.329 --> 00:26:37.450
contacted Ian Johnston in Switzerland, who knew nothing about the
375
00:26:37.529 --> 00:26:44.519
creepy delivery as Sadie described it to him. For the
376
00:26:44.599 --> 00:26:48.599
practice run, Katrina Walsh had driven to Helmshaw in her
377
00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:54.079
own car. Williams decided it would be unwise to use
378
00:26:54.119 --> 00:26:57.029
their personal vehicles on the night of the real event.
379
00:26:58.210 --> 00:27:03.549
On Sunday, January the 10th, 2016, Sarah Williams set about
380
00:27:03.609 --> 00:27:06.269
looking for a suitable second vehicle.
381
00:27:07.569 --> 00:27:10.089
So they have to buy a car that won't be
382
00:27:10.190 --> 00:27:14.150
identified as belonging to either of them. Williams and Walsh
383
00:27:14.549 --> 00:27:18.230
search for one and eventually purchase an elderly Renault Clio.
384
00:27:19.170 --> 00:27:22.029
But they do more than that. They also make sure
385
00:27:22.130 --> 00:27:26.349
that the number plate, which is on the Clio, is
386
00:27:26.470 --> 00:27:30.059
changed so it doesn't get recognised by the automated number
387
00:27:30.119 --> 00:27:35.119
recognition system used by most British police forces. And Walsh
388
00:27:35.160 --> 00:27:37.539
does quite a clever job of turning the number three
389
00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:40.339
into the number eight within a black tape.
390
00:27:41.380 --> 00:27:46.809
On Tuesday, January the 12th, 2016, Sarah Williams made what
391
00:27:46.890 --> 00:27:49.450
she thought was another clever move.
392
00:27:50.069 --> 00:27:53.259
Williams purchased a pair of boots that were several sizes
393
00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:56.269
too large for her so that that would throw the
394
00:27:56.309 --> 00:27:58.369
police off the scent and they would think that the
395
00:27:58.390 --> 00:28:01.170
perpetrator was somebody who was male or at least somebody
396
00:28:01.210 --> 00:28:03.380
who was much bigger than she was.
397
00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:08.420
On the 14th of January, Sarah Williams went to work
398
00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:13.619
at the Chill Factory as normal. At 3pm, she texted
399
00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:17.160
David Hardwick to tell him she was feeling unwell and
400
00:28:17.259 --> 00:28:25.430
going home early. An hour later, Hardwick visited Williams at
401
00:28:25.490 --> 00:28:31.809
home and left soon after. A little while later, Hardwick
402
00:28:31.849 --> 00:28:37.099
received a text from Williams. Just had another cup of tea.
403
00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:39.859
Going to switch light off and have a nap now.
404
00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:43.079
Will ring when I wake up as long as not late.
405
00:28:44.619 --> 00:28:50.049
Katrina Walsh arrived at Sarah Williams' home. Several minutes later,
406
00:28:50.329 --> 00:28:53.349
the two women emerged from the house and walked to
407
00:28:53.390 --> 00:28:59.180
the parked Renault Clio. Walsh returned alone to Williams' home.
408
00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:08.029
On the night of the 14th of January, 2016, Walsh
409
00:29:08.180 --> 00:29:14.369
drives to Williams' home and stays there, incidentally, to look
410
00:29:14.430 --> 00:29:18.190
after Sarah Williams' dog as well as everything else. while
411
00:29:18.230 --> 00:29:22.319
Sarah Williams takes the Renault Clio, which has been hidden
412
00:29:22.359 --> 00:29:26.440
in a car park nearby, and drives it from there
413
00:29:26.940 --> 00:29:32.789
to Sadie Hartley's house. Sadie Hartley that day has been
414
00:29:32.809 --> 00:29:35.609
at work in a perfectly normal way in her office.
415
00:29:37.009 --> 00:29:38.829
She goes home at the end of the afternoon and
416
00:29:38.890 --> 00:29:41.529
in fact goes out to tend to her horse in
417
00:29:41.549 --> 00:29:46.170
the Sables. She gets back to the house about half
418
00:29:46.230 --> 00:29:47.579
past seven.
419
00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:54.460
Sarah Williams parked her car and very calmly walked up
420
00:29:54.759 --> 00:29:59.500
to Sadie Hartley's door. And as soon as Sadie Hartley
421
00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:03.309
opened the door, She lunged at her with this stun gun,
422
00:30:04.009 --> 00:30:10.589
incapacitating her. And then she stabbed her over 40 times.
423
00:30:13.210 --> 00:30:16.670
And the whole murder, the whole attack took just four
424
00:30:16.759 --> 00:30:17.339
minutes and 40 seconds.
425
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:28.150
After 17 months of meticulous planning, Sadie Hartley, the woman
426
00:30:28.230 --> 00:30:31.630
standing between Sarah Williams and the love of her life,
427
00:30:31.769 --> 00:30:33.589
Ian Johnston, was dead.
428
00:30:34.650 --> 00:30:38.369
So in four minutes, she has ended the life of
429
00:30:38.410 --> 00:30:45.549
Sadie Hartley with 41 stab wounds. It's the most depraved, disgusting,
430
00:30:46.380 --> 00:30:50.259
horrifying crime. You cannot imagine the brutality of that.
431
00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:51.880
And yet.
432
00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:56.619
Sarah Williams is as cool as could be. She's very careful.
433
00:30:56.660 --> 00:30:59.690
She closes the door. She takes the murder weapon with
434
00:30:59.730 --> 00:31:03.329
her and, of course, the stun gun back to the car,
435
00:31:04.450 --> 00:31:08.319
gets in the car, drives back to Katrina Walsh.
436
00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:13.619
Williams met Walsh at a designated rendezvous in a car
437
00:31:13.680 --> 00:31:18.819
park at Ellesmere Port. They abandoned the Renault Clio and
438
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:25.029
drove home in Walsh's car. Once home, Williams had a
439
00:31:25.109 --> 00:31:27.109
plan to cover their tracks.
440
00:31:27.829 --> 00:31:32.069
She gave all of the evidence, all of the incriminating
441
00:31:32.170 --> 00:31:35.390
evidence to Walsh to get rid of. So she just
442
00:31:35.450 --> 00:31:38.259
wants it off her plate. She doesn't want any connection
443
00:31:38.380 --> 00:31:41.500
with these items. And she believes that Walsh is just
444
00:31:41.539 --> 00:31:45.680
going to dispose of them. And Williams will later ensure
445
00:31:45.700 --> 00:31:48.059
that there is no forensic evidence on her. She'll have
446
00:31:48.099 --> 00:31:49.839
a bath. She'll have a bit of a cleanup when
447
00:31:49.900 --> 00:31:53.660
she gets home. But all of that really compelling evidence
448
00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:55.400
is now in the hands of Walsh.
449
00:31:57.420 --> 00:32:00.359
The following day, Williams went to work at the chill
450
00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:06.769
factory as normal. Katrina Walsh also went to work at
451
00:32:06.849 --> 00:32:11.430
Collins Farm Stables, taking the incriminating evidence with her.
452
00:32:14.660 --> 00:32:17.420
Most of us, when we hurt someone, when we upset somebody,
453
00:32:17.660 --> 00:32:20.329
we feel guilty about it. We feel bad. We're not
454
00:32:20.410 --> 00:32:24.329
quite ourselves afterwards. But Williams is completely different. She's able
455
00:32:24.369 --> 00:32:26.690
to just pick up and get on with her life.
456
00:32:27.130 --> 00:32:29.400
And I'm sure she's thinking about the next stage of
457
00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:31.759
the plan here of getting Ian Johnston back.
458
00:32:34.759 --> 00:32:38.400
The day after the murder on Friday the 15th of January,
459
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:42.619
a concerned colleague of Sadie Hartley's called the police, who
460
00:32:42.700 --> 00:32:45.609
went to the house in Helmshaw and found her lying
461
00:32:45.700 --> 00:32:52.309
dead in the hallway. Former Detective Superintendent David Swindle has
462
00:32:52.349 --> 00:32:56.529
been the attending senior officer at numerous murder scenes.
463
00:32:57.910 --> 00:33:00.470
One of the big things is looking at the victim,
464
00:33:01.069 --> 00:33:03.109
is to find out what there is in the victim's
465
00:33:03.150 --> 00:33:07.049
life that would lead to a possible motive, and the
466
00:33:07.089 --> 00:33:13.690
victim and the associates. So the victim's associate was Johnston.
467
00:33:14.109 --> 00:33:16.990
He was on a skiing holiday at the time, so
468
00:33:17.559 --> 00:33:21.740
he was contacted. And when he was contacted, he spoke
469
00:33:21.859 --> 00:33:28.099
about an obsessive ex-partner, and the police identified who that
470
00:33:28.140 --> 00:33:30.000
was with the assistance of Johnston.
471
00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:35.279
Johnston also told the police about the strange late-night delivery
472
00:33:35.319 --> 00:33:38.940
of flowers Sadie had told him about the previous week.
473
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:44.359
The information provided by Johnston to the police was enough
474
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:49.279
for them to bring Sarah Williams in for questioning. On Sunday,
475
00:33:49.339 --> 00:33:53.940
the 17th of January, 2016, she was arrested.
476
00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:58.200
Williams was arrested at 3 o'clock in the morning when
477
00:33:58.220 --> 00:34:02.470
she was at her own home. Her demeanor was quite calm.
478
00:34:02.630 --> 00:34:06.849
It was quite cool. She didn't appear to be freaking out.
479
00:34:06.950 --> 00:34:10.449
She didn't appear to be overly upset or overly distressed.
480
00:34:10.869 --> 00:34:13.860
And this was a persona that she maintained throughout her
481
00:34:13.889 --> 00:34:17.460
police interview. She seemed very unaffected by the fact that
482
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:20.780
she was being arrested for the most serious of crimes.
483
00:34:21.780 --> 00:34:26.219
When questioned, Sarah Williams denied any knowledge or involvement in
484
00:34:26.260 --> 00:34:31.099
the murder of Sadie Hartley. After four interviews, she declined
485
00:34:31.139 --> 00:34:35.840
to answer any further questions and only replied, no comment.
486
00:34:37.940 --> 00:34:42.500
The police then began investigating the strange flower delivery on
487
00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:44.719
the evening of the 7th of January.
488
00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:48.739
The UK is one of the world's most watched nations
489
00:34:48.920 --> 00:34:52.579
in terms of the CCTV and surveillance that we have here.
490
00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:56.389
So every element of the planning of this murder was
491
00:34:56.449 --> 00:35:01.280
captured on CCTV. There was AMPR data as well, automatic
492
00:35:01.340 --> 00:35:05.010
number plate recognition. So there was this digital trail that
493
00:35:05.050 --> 00:35:06.739
these two killers left behind them.
494
00:35:07.750 --> 00:35:10.449
On the night of January 7th, the night of the
495
00:35:10.510 --> 00:35:15.550
dry run, CCTV from Sadie's neighbor's house revealed a figure
496
00:35:15.570 --> 00:35:19.789
of about 5'6 wearing a baseball cap. It was unclear
497
00:35:19.849 --> 00:35:23.739
if this person was male or female. Then the police
498
00:35:23.820 --> 00:35:28.590
traced the movements of a silver Vauxhall captured driving towards Helmshaw,
499
00:35:28.969 --> 00:35:32.690
stopping at a Tesco store in Haslingdon and arriving near
500
00:35:32.769 --> 00:35:37.090
Sadie Hartley's home. The owner of the car was Katrina Walsh.
501
00:35:38.699 --> 00:35:43.619
On Monday, the 18th of January, 2016, Katrina Walsh was
502
00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:48.719
arrested at the riding stables where she worked. Unlike Sarah Williams,
503
00:35:49.099 --> 00:35:52.409
Katrina was unable to stay quiet.
504
00:35:53.130 --> 00:35:56.969
Walsh absolutely spills the beans. Before she even gets into
505
00:35:56.989 --> 00:36:01.719
the interview room, she's telling the custody sergeant absolutely everything
506
00:36:01.800 --> 00:36:04.980
about what's happened, to the extent that the custody sergeant
507
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:07.480
actually has to say to her, stop, save this.
508
00:36:07.340 --> 00:36:08.039
For the interview.
509
00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:11.679
So the contrast between these two suspects is really striking.
510
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:14.010
She wants to frame me for it or kill me
511
00:36:14.070 --> 00:36:15.050
and frame me for it.
512
00:36:15.349 --> 00:36:18.610
Walsh claimed that Williams had committed the murder and that
513
00:36:18.690 --> 00:36:22.869
she had unwittingly been caught up in it. she accompanied
514
00:36:22.909 --> 00:36:26.070
the police to the stables where she worked and revealed
515
00:36:26.110 --> 00:36:28.690
where she'd hidden all the incriminating evidence.
516
00:36:29.750 --> 00:36:32.789
Everything that had been used in the murder was right
517
00:36:32.809 --> 00:36:36.590
there for them. So, in the ground, you had the knife,
518
00:36:38.119 --> 00:36:42.579
the stun gun and the boots, the boots which had
519
00:36:42.900 --> 00:36:46.539
some of Sadie Hartley's blood on them. And in the eaves,
520
00:36:46.599 --> 00:36:50.920
you've got Katrina Walsh's diaries which detail... in, you know,
521
00:36:50.940 --> 00:36:55.119
sort of minute detail of how they planned Sadie Hartley's murder.
522
00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:59.739
And the police also discovered that Sarah Williams hadn't been
523
00:36:59.800 --> 00:37:03.719
as clever as she thought in disposing of incriminating evidence.
524
00:37:04.420 --> 00:37:07.130
When she got home, she had a shower or a bath.
525
00:37:07.309 --> 00:37:10.389
She cleaned up with bleach. But there were things that
526
00:37:10.469 --> 00:37:14.710
she missed, so the police were able to get some
527
00:37:14.769 --> 00:37:18.010
trace evidence from the bath where there were traces of
528
00:37:18.170 --> 00:37:23.590
Sadie's DNA. They found on Sarah's spectacles some particles of
529
00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:27.079
blood that had been transferred during the murder. So she
530
00:37:27.139 --> 00:37:29.800
thought that she'd done a good cleanup, but she certainly hadn't.
531
00:37:30.260 --> 00:37:35.179
Williams is now in custody under suspicion. Walsh is now
532
00:37:35.500 --> 00:37:42.300
in custody under suspicion. And Walsh provides, essentially, the evidence
533
00:37:42.340 --> 00:37:46.760
to convict Williams. She has always maintained that throughout the
534
00:37:47.219 --> 00:37:49.619
plot that they hatched together, she was never going to
535
00:37:49.659 --> 00:37:52.059
be at what she called the sharp end of the killing.
536
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:54.380
She wasn't going to do the killing. She was just
537
00:37:54.460 --> 00:37:57.639
going to assist. But of course, British law insists that
538
00:37:57.699 --> 00:38:00.960
if you are collaborative in a murder, you are equally
539
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:01.739
guilty of murder.
540
00:38:06.989 --> 00:38:14.469
January 20th, 2016. Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were charged
541
00:38:14.489 --> 00:38:20.610
with the murder of Sadie Hartley. Both women denied murdering her.
542
00:38:22.139 --> 00:38:27.159
On August 3rd, 2016, the trial of Sarah Williams and
543
00:38:27.219 --> 00:38:30.559
Katrina Walsh began at Preston Crown Court.
544
00:38:31.300 --> 00:38:35.530
They both pointed the finger at each other, but of
545
00:38:35.610 --> 00:38:42.269
course the prosecution gave a motive. Sarah Williams was to
546
00:38:42.289 --> 00:38:44.630
get rid of her love rival, who she thought was
547
00:38:44.670 --> 00:38:46.929
standing in the way of her being with her perfect man,
548
00:38:47.010 --> 00:38:52.210
Ian Johnston. And the motive they gave for Katrina Walsh
549
00:38:52.570 --> 00:38:57.760
was to help her friend, but also that she found
550
00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:01.719
the idea of plotting this murder very exciting.
551
00:39:03.739 --> 00:39:07.719
Just the salacious nature of it, everything that came out
552
00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:12.260
in court, the level of planning that they went through.
553
00:39:12.280 --> 00:39:17.840
And the fact that they were two women who murdered
554
00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:22.019
another woman, and for what really? A sordid affair that
555
00:39:22.079 --> 00:39:27.260
was no longer even happening. And the way that they
556
00:39:27.300 --> 00:39:30.199
kind of viewed it as some kind of game. and
557
00:39:30.219 --> 00:39:33.980
they forgot in all of that that it wasn't a game,
558
00:39:34.099 --> 00:39:36.679
and they weren't in a novel, and they weren't characters,
559
00:39:37.099 --> 00:39:40.320
and that she was actually a person.
560
00:39:42.849 --> 00:39:46.989
Sarah Williams decided to take the stand in her defense.
561
00:39:47.650 --> 00:39:47.929
There was.
562
00:39:49.059 --> 00:39:54.619
Absolutely no sense of remorse there. The prosecution, I remember,
563
00:39:55.320 --> 00:40:00.460
were trying to talk about Sadie Hartley's family, her daughter,
564
00:40:00.579 --> 00:40:04.050
who had just got engaged, and trying to get her
565
00:40:04.119 --> 00:40:07.969
to think about how the family would feel about their
566
00:40:08.010 --> 00:40:14.349
murdered mother. Sarah Williams stood in the dock, very calm
567
00:40:14.929 --> 00:40:20.460
and very arrogant, very nonchalant. and just denied having anything to.
568
00:40:20.389 --> 00:40:20.840
Do with it.
569
00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:26.880
Unlike Sarah Williams, Katrina Walsh chose not to defend herself
570
00:40:27.260 --> 00:40:27.699
in court.
571
00:40:28.460 --> 00:40:33.199
Walsh's conduct in court was quite different from that of Williams.
572
00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:37.369
Whilst Williams was quite confident, quite self-assured, Walsh just kind
573
00:40:37.409 --> 00:40:40.429
of shrunk into herself, and her conduct was quite similar
574
00:40:40.829 --> 00:40:44.630
to that of her early police interviews. So she didn't
575
00:40:44.690 --> 00:40:47.389
make eye contact with anybody. She sat with her head down.
576
00:40:47.800 --> 00:40:50.639
And this is a very kind of childlike response to
577
00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:53.469
the situation in which she finds herself. She just wants
578
00:40:53.550 --> 00:40:55.969
it all to go away and that if I don't
579
00:40:56.030 --> 00:40:58.030
look at people, they can't look at me.
580
00:40:59.710 --> 00:41:06.260
The trial lasted for seven weeks. On August 17th, 2016,
581
00:41:06.260 --> 00:41:10.119
Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were found guilty of the
582
00:41:10.159 --> 00:41:12.019
murder of Sadie Hartley.
583
00:41:12.860 --> 00:41:14.239
So Sarah Williams was.
584
00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:17.820
Sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 30
585
00:41:17.820 --> 00:41:21.760
years and another life sentence for Katrina Walsh, but a
586
00:41:21.820 --> 00:41:26.110
minimum of 25 years. And despite Katrina Walsh not actually
587
00:41:26.650 --> 00:41:30.230
being there at the murder scene on the night of
588
00:41:30.269 --> 00:41:33.989
the murder, she was found to be just as culpable
589
00:41:34.889 --> 00:41:35.769
and just as guilty.
590
00:41:37.550 --> 00:41:42.159
When handing down the sentences, the trial judge was unrestrained
591
00:41:42.539 --> 00:41:43.460
in his summations.
592
00:41:44.820 --> 00:41:50.989
Mr Justice Turner, in his sentencing remarks, points out that
593
00:41:51.070 --> 00:41:56.849
in contrast to the life-affirming good spirits of Sadie Hartley,
594
00:41:57.849 --> 00:42:02.800
these are two vile, despicable women. And he says, and
595
00:42:02.860 --> 00:42:07.260
I quote, but let no one make the mistake of
596
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:11.099
thinking this is a crime of passion. It was a
597
00:42:11.199 --> 00:42:20.480
crime of obsession. of arrogance, of barbarity. But above all,
598
00:42:21.300 --> 00:42:23.039
it was a crime of pure evil.
599
00:42:27.519 --> 00:42:31.039
When Sarah Williams wanted a man, no one was going
600
00:42:31.059 --> 00:42:34.440
to get in her way. Any love rival.
601
00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:35.699
Became an enemy.
602
00:42:36.519 --> 00:42:40.510
Katrina Walsh was her willing accomplice, thrilled by the game
603
00:42:40.550 --> 00:42:45.090
of catching their prey. Sadie Hartley had no idea she
604
00:42:45.150 --> 00:42:48.989
was part of their sick game when she was ruthlessly
605
00:42:49.090 --> 00:42:53.880
murdered by these two women, making Sarah Williams and Katrina
606
00:42:53.920 --> 00:42:57.639
Walsh two of the world's most evil killers.
