UK - Liam Smith, 38, suffered ‘fatal gunshot’ & ‘acid attack’ 24 November 2022, Shevington nr Wigan *arrests*

  • #21
#CHARGE | GMP charge a 37-year-old woman in connection with the murder of Liam Smith

At around 7pm on Thursday 24 November 2022, Greater Manchester Police responded to reports of a deceased body on Kilburn Drive, Shevington, Wigan.

Rachel Fulstow (24/01/1986) of Andrew Drive, York has been charged with murder and perverting the course of justice.

She has since been remanded into custody and is due to appear at Tameside Magistrates on Thursday 23 February 2023.

Liam’s family continue to be supported by specially-trained officers and are aware of the progress being made in this investigation.
 
  • #22
Rachel Fulstow, of Andrew Drive in York, is the second person to be accused of killing 38-year-old Liam Smith last November 24.

He was found with a fatal gunshot wound and doused in acid and alkali substances outside his home in Kilburn Drive, Shevington.

Fulstow is further charged with perverting the course of justice.
At the brief hearing at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square, she was told that a pre-trial and preparation hearing will take place on March 27, the same day that co-accused Michael Hiller, 39, of Ecclesall Road, Sheffield, is due to make his latest appearance facing the same murder charge.

 
  • #23
  • #24
Last edited:
  • #25

The "well orchestrated and executed" killing of a man in a gun and acid attack was an act of "revenge" over a "brief liaison", a court has been told.
The body of Liam Smith, 38, was found near his home in Shevington, Wigan, on the evening of 24 November 2022.
Michael Hillier, 39, of Ecclesall Road, Sheffield, and Rachel Fulstow, 37, of Andrew Drive, York, both deny murder.
Prosecutor Jason Pitter KC told Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court they "worked together" on the killing.
Opening his case, Mr Pitter said the attack on Mr Smith was "probably a misplaced, misguided and wholly disproportionate act of revenge".
He said the 38-year-old had had a "brief liaison" with Ms Fulstow, who was Mr Hillier's partner.
On the day of the attack, Mr Smith was "lured out and away from his home address" on Kilburn Drive by Mr Hillier, who had come "ready to do his business", he said.
 
  • #26

Mr Pitter said Mr Smith and Fulstow had the “brief liaison” at a York hotel in 2019 and she became Hillier’s partner a year later, allegedly sparking the murder plot.

He continued: “It appears that he was not happy about the fact of her having had a one night stand and was led to believe that she had been raped.

“We will wait to see what the precise motivation for the killing of Liam Smith was.

“One proper conclusion is that Liam Smith’s brief interaction with Fulstow was in a distorted and extreme way the cause for him being their target.

“In due course she was to go on to say that she believed that she had not consented to have sex with Liam Smith on that night in the hotel in York which she had booked.

“However, even if that is right, she had put it down to a, ‘misunderstanding’ of the situation between them and that she herself held no ill feeling to Liam Smith.

“It is factually relevant but does not need resolving as to what exactly happened between them.

“Liam Smith cannot answer for himself.
 
  • #27
  • #28


A woman told police she did not know her boyfriend would shoot and pour acid on a man over a one-night stand she had with the victim, a trial has heard.
During the police interview read to the jury, Ms Fulstow told detectives: "I did not know Michael was planning or going to do it. What happened, happened.
"I told Michael about what happened, in essence because we were becoming more serious. It was non-consensual.
"It had happened two to three years before.
"Michael wanted me to go to the police, I did not want to at that stage, years later.
"He asked me what the guy was called but I didn't know that much."
Ms Fulstow said she told Mr Hillier that Mr Smith was from Wigan and had his own business, but he then went on to find out more information about him and she herself Googled him "out of curiosity".
Ms Fulstow also claimed Mr Hillier would be "verbally abusive" and "belittle" her during their relationship.
On one occasion after they had been out for a meal they returned to her house in York and Mr Hillier began smashing her home up.
She said he was screaming, "What were you doing in a hotel room?"
She added: "He would go on and on and on about the Liam situation. He said he was going to confront him and knows where he lives."
 
  • #29
  • #30
Quote from Hillier in the article -
"But when we discussed it, other options became available like dealing with it ourselves, me mainly doing the heavy lifting, she wasn’t opposed to it. There are some people who like brunettes, some like blondes. I like girls with traditional morals that don’t sleep around and have one night stands."
 
  • #31
  • #32
  • #33


A woman has told a jury she did not know her new boyfriend was about to shoot and attack with acid a Tinder date she had a "one-night stand" with.
Ms Fulstow, giving evidence from the witness box in her defence, said she met Mr Smith through Tinder and he travelled to York to meet up in September 2019.
She said they went out and got drunk and they ended up having sex but she said it was not consensual.
Michael Hayton KC, defending, asked her why she went for lunch with him the next day. Ms Fulstow said she did not regard the episode as rape and would not call it that.
She said: "He apologised, we spoke about it and I accepted that and we carried on.
"It was non-consensual but that is not the word [rape] I have used or have ever used. I just wanted to forget about it."
 
  • #34


A woman has told a jury she did not know her new boyfriend was about to shoot and attack with acid a Tinder date she had a "one-night stand" with.
Ms Fulstow, giving evidence from the witness box in her defence, said she met Mr Smith through Tinder and he travelled to York to meet up in September 2019.
She said they went out and got drunk and they ended up having sex but she said it was not consensual.
Michael Hayton KC, defending, asked her why she went for lunch with him the next day. Ms Fulstow said she did not regard the episode as rape and would not call it that.
She said: "He apologised, we spoke about it and I accepted that and we carried on.
"It was non-consensual but that is not the word [rape] I have used or have ever used. I just wanted to forget about it."
Shocking
 
  • #35
  • #36

Rachel Fulstow, 37, said the first she knew Liam Smith, 38, had come to harm was when boyfriend Michael Hillier turned up at her home after the attack.
(…)
Six days later Ms Fulstow and Mr Hillier, who both deny murder, flew to Jamaica for a two-week break, the jury was told.
(…)
Ms Fulstow said she went to Jamaica with Mr Hillier but felt "horrendous for what he had done".
She added: "I just wanted to get through the holiday. I just wanted to go home."
 
  • #37

She claims she was too petrified of Hillier, a “significant” drug dealer, to go to the police, so instead lied to detectives investigating the killing.

But she agreed she viewed body-builder Hillier, whom she met on the dating app Hinge, as an “alpha male” who represented her last chance of settling down and having children.

(…)

He also had “criteria” for women to be his partner that he expected “his women” to comply with, one of which was not to have had a one-night stand, the court heard.

Mr Pitter said: “You must have feared you might lose him. You were worried your chance to settle down and have children were going to disappear?”

Fulstow replied: “Yes.”
——-
Photos of the 2 defendants in this article:
 
  • Like
Reactions: nao
  • #38
I still can't work out why she told him of the one night stand, it was before she met him so he need never have known about it
 
  • #39
Flaky defence strategy IMO. Can’t see a jury buying into that.
 
  • #40

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
118
Guests online
2,410
Total visitors
2,528

Forum statistics

Threads
632,726
Messages
18,630,985
Members
243,274
Latest member
WickedGlow
Back
Top