[dropcap type=”circle”]O[/dropcap]n 17 August, Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were found guilty of the murder of businesswoman and mother of two, Sadie Hartley, at her home in Lancashire. She had been stabbed 40 times.
Williams was obsessed with Ms Hartley’s partner, Ian Johnston. She recruited Walsh so that together they could plan and execute what they thought would be the perfect murder.
Next week an ITV documentary tells the story of how detectives solved this vicious and shocking crime – from the first call to Sadie Hartley’s home where her terribly wounded body had been discovered, through to the convictions of the killers.
Sarah Williams grew up in and around Cheshire, started taking lessons aged 12 at the Wirral Riding Centre in Neston, and went to secondary school in Birkenhead when she was 17.
During the trial at Preston Crown Court she was defended by barrister Gordon Cole QC from Heswall.
Sadie Hartley’s murder had been carefully planned. On answering her front door she was paralysed by a high voltage stun gun and then stabbed repeatedly during a ferocious attack that was described in court as “more closely redolent of a clinical assassination than a personal killing” and carried out with “demonic savagery”.
Production company Raw Cut TV was making a documentary about Lancashire Constabulary when the murder was committed. With extraordinary access to the police operation that brought the two women to justice, The Murder Of Sadie Hartley explores the intricate mechanics of the investigation.
Cameras follow detectives as they investigate the crime scene, discover the murder weapon and other key evidence, and make the dawn raid in which key suspect Sarah Williams is arrested at her home in Blacon on the outskirts of Chester.
As lead Detective Superintendent Paul Withers and his team including Detective Bryony Midgley piece together evidence, they discover that Williams, who had relationships with multiple lovers including the former fireman Johnston, considered herself to be Sadie Hartley’s love rival.
The police unravel lies told by Williams and discover her accomplice Walsh, who claims to have no memory of the crime. Yet evidence shows the pair hatched an 18 month long plan to kill Sadie Hartley involving scouting her home, visiting Germany to purchase a key weapon, the stun gun, buying oversized boots to leave misleading footprints, and a second hand car in a bid to evade detection.
But far from committing the perfect murder the pair left a clear trail including forensic evidence, extensive CCTV footage, and even loyalty card data that revealed the purchase from Tesco of the murder weapon.
The Murder of Sadie Hartley airs on ITV at 9pm on Thursday September 1.
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