Woman facing life in jail for murdering love rival with stun gun and knife

A "psycho" ex is facing life in jail for the gruesome stun gun murder of her love rival.

Sarah Williams, 35, shot successful businesswoman Sadie Hartley, 60, with a 500,000-volt stun gun as her unsuspecting victim answered the door at her home, Preston Crown Court heard.

Seconds later, with "demonic savagery", she used a kitchen knife to stab the semi-paralysed mother-of-two in the face and neck, inflicting more than 50 injuries, before leaving her in a pool of blood in the hallway of the £500,000 house in Helmshore, Lancashire.

Ms Hartley was home alone because her partner, Ian Johnston, was away on a skiing trip in the Swiss Alps.

Williams, described as a "bunny boiler" and "kept woman" who was already in a relationship with a wealthy 75-year-old "sugar daddy" and having affairs with other men, had a brief fling with ex-fireman Mr Johnston.

He had dumped "obsessive and jealous" Williams and begun a new life with Ms Hartley - but explicit photos and sex texts continued between the pair while Williams plotted the "perfect murder" for 18 months to kill her rival and win him back.

Today she was convicted of the murder on January 14, alongside her accomplice, horse riding instructor, Katrina "Kitt" Walsh, 56, following a seven-week trial.

Both women, from Chester, had denied murder and blamed each other.