A “vengeful” woman who tried to hire a hitman to kill a former work colleague after a fling has been jailed.
Helen Hewlett, 44, of King’s Lynn in Norfolk, paid a £17,000 deposit to a website used for recruiting killers.
Sentencing her at Norwich Crown Court to seven and a half years in jail, Judge Katharine Moore said Hewlett was a “dangerous offender”.
“Your family wants nothing more to do with you,” she added. She was convicted of soliciting murder following a trial.
The court heard Hewlett’s target was a 50-year-old colleague with whom she had become infatuated after a brief affair.
Hewlett and Paul Belton met when they worked at the Linda McCartney frozen food factory in Fakenham and had a kiss in his car.
The jury was told Hewlett had placed an order on the dark web stating “need someone killed in Norfolk”, adding it was “vital it looks like an accident”.
Mr Belton told the court that Hewlett had “become obsessed with him” and over a period of two years, until August 2022, she bombarded him with emails and texts, urging him to meet her.
These included sexual images and videos of herself.
When Mr Belton left for another job at Kinnerton chocolate factory, Hewlett managed to get herself work at the same place.
The jury was told that Hewlett made complaints against Mr Belton to his employers, accusing him of harassment, homophobia and racial abuse.
The company told him there was no case to answer and advised Mr Belton to contact the police, which he did.
After officers visited Hewlett, she initially ceased contact with Mr Belton, but resumed emailing him soon afterwards, saying she was “sorry”.
Before posting her request for a killer on the website, Hewlett had placed money into an escrow third-party account.
She gave Mr Belton’s home and work address and other personal details on the website, the court heard.
Police arrested her after she was linked to payments made to the site.
Hewlett took out a number of loans to pay for the killing, but investigators were unable to say if the cash went to a potential hitman, or if the online killers market site was a scam.
‘A vengeful streak’
In statements read out in court, her victim Mr Belton said he had been left feeling “scared, afraid of everyone” and was very wary of strangers.
He said he was “now anxious, suffering from anxiety most days of my life”.
Sentencing Hewlett, Judge Katharine Moore said: “You plainly caused emotional harm. Mr Belton suffered significantly.
“Fortunately you were duped [on the dark web] and there was no contract killer.”
She told Hewlett: “You have long-standing depression and no support… your family wants nothing more to do with you.
“You are saddened by the situation you are in, but you have shown little genuine remorse.
“You have a vengeful streak… your risk of reoffending is higher than assessed [from the psychiatric report].”
The judge described Hewlett as “a dangerous offender”.
Hewlett will spend a further five years on licence following her custodial term.
She was also handed a restraining order for the foreseeable future preventing her from going near Mr Belton or his family at their home or work.
The defendant was cleared of stalking, involving fear or violence to cause serious alarm or distress, but she was found guilty of a lesser charge of stalking, without serious alarm or distress, between January 2021 and August 2022.
Following sentencing, Det Ch Insp Michael Pereira, from the Specialist Digital and Serious Organised Crime team for Norfolk and Suffolk police forces, described the investigation as “complex and intensive”.
Teamwork and cyber-crime investigators had “helped to divert a possible ‘hit’ on the victim and prevent them coming to harm”, he said.
Source – BBC News
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