A woman who tried to hire a hitman to kill a former work colleague after a fling has been found guilty of soliciting murder.
Helen Hewlett, 44, of King’s Lynn in Norfolk, paid £17,000 as a deposit to a website used for recruiting contract killers, her trial heard.
She was arrested after police linked her to payments made to the site.
The court heard her target was a 50-year-old colleague with whom she had become infatuated after a brief affair.
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”.
The pair met when they worked at the Linda McCartney Frozen Food factory in Fakenham and had a kiss in his car.
During the trial, the victim, who is not being identified, said 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 he left to work at the nearby Kinnerton chocolate factory, Hewlett managed to secure a job there too.
While at Kinnerton, the court heard Hewlett filed two complaints against the man to his employers, accusing him of harassment, homophobia and racial abuse.
The firm told the man there was no case to answer, and he was advised to go to the police.
Asked by prosecutor, Marti Blair, why he eventually went to the police, he said: “I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to be left alone.”
The court heard the police visited Hewlett and she stopped trying to make contact with her victim for a few days, but she resumed emailing soon afterwards saying she was “sorry”.
Prior to posting the request on the website, Hewlett placed money into an escrow third-party account.
In her attempt to find a killer, she gave the victim’s home and work address and other personal details, the court heard.
Hewlett took out a number of loans to pay for the hitman, but investigators were unable to say if the cash went to a potential hitman, or if the online killers market site was a scam.
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.
She is awaiting sentencing.