Williams denied having anything to do with the murder but accepted she had had a relationship with Mr Johnston which ended in 'a bad argument'. Interviewed by detectives, Walsh claimed she was 'petrified' of Williams but that she never believed her friend would carry out the murder. The horse riding instructor admitted hiding the stun gun and knife at work at Collinge Farm, Chester, along with the diary she kept detailing the murder plot, the jury heard.
She said she hid various items under manure in one of the horses' fields and her diary in the eaves of a roof. Walsh suggested that she thought she was playing a game of Hunted - a Channel 4 programme in which people attempt to avoid detection by trackers. Asked by police if she knew what Williams was planning, she replied: 'I got glimpses of it but it all seemed like Hunted, she had me watch Hunted and everything.'
[FONT="]Sarah Williams, 35, and Katrina Walsh, 56, are both jointly standing trial for the murder of Sadie Hartley in January this year. The pair, who deny murder, will seek to blame each other for the crime, Preston crown court heard.
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[/FONT][FONT="]Hartley’s neighbour Frank Unsworth gave police a detailed description of an athletic woman with dark, wavy unkempt hair dressed in walking gear. Prosecutors argued that the description matched that of Williams, and not Walsh, who was described as being “stocky” and “butch-looking”.
[/FONT][FONT="]After the attack, Williams allegedly drove back to Cheshire and met Walsh in a car park near her home. The court heard she tried to clean the inside of the Clio and then abandoned the car before the pair drove away together, ditching their phones. Walsh was then allegedly given the task of destroying the evidence, but the prosecution claimed that she did not carry out these orders correctly.[/FONT][FONT="]McDermott said: “Sarah Williams will have counted on her co-conspirator hiding these things forever. She miscalculated.”
[/FONT] [FONT="]Clothes allegedly used in the attack were only partially burned and other incriminating items including the boots, knife, stun gun and keys to the Clio were hidden under manure in one of the horses’ fields at Walsh’s stables, rather than destroyed. A towel used to clean the steering wheel of the Clio was hidden in a tack room and Walsh’s diaries were placed in the eaves of the same building.
[/FONT] [FONT="]After Walsh’s arrest four days after the murder, she led the police to Collinge Farm, where she was a horse riding instructor, and handed over not only her diaries – “detailing the whole dreadful plan” – but also incriminating evidence from the scene.
I wonder if WIlliam's is going to say that Walsh wrote the diary to shift the blame if they were ever caught? That Walsh committed the murder but wrote the diary to say Wlliam's did it, and that is why she didn't burn it.
A bit hard to follow this - but does show Williams has form or intent for killing anyone who she perceives as a problem !!
Aban Quaynor ‏@AbanQuaynorLT 6m6 minutes ago
Mr S said Williams threatened to kill male partner of friend who friend had problem with
He said Mr Hardwick was worried
Richard Savery was a ski instructor at the Chill Factore snow sports centre near the Trafford Centre. That’s where he met Sarah Williams.
He says he believed she was engaged to David Hardwick, a man who the court yesterday heard is in his seventies and was her boyfriend.
However Mr Savery also says he also learned Miss Williams was having a relationship with Sadie’s partner Ian Johnston.
He says Miss Williams was “infatuated” with him. He describes one incident during a Christmas party at the Castle In The Sky pub next to the Chill Factore where Sarah WIlliams, Sadie and Ian Johnston were present.
Mr Savery says Sarah WIlliams told him she had earlier been chatting to Ian Johnston at the bar. He says Miss Williams told him: “He’s going to get himself in big trouble.
“If she (Sadie) had a go at me, I’ll smack her.”
It was as if he believed she might carry it through'
Mr Savery also describes another incident where a friend told Sarah Williams she was having problems with her partner and Sarah “threatened to kill him.”
I would normally interpret that as a light hearted comment however she was with David (Hardwick) at the time and he said ‘don’t say things like that people might believe them.’ It was his reaction that shocked me. It was as if he believed she might carry it through.