A mum has been jailed after she tried to hire a hitman to kill a colleague she had had a fling with.
Helen Hewlett, 44, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years today after she paid Bitcoin worth over £20,000 to a website on the dark web called ‘Online Killers Market’, all in an effort to get Paul Belton, 50, murdered in what would appear to be an accident.
It came after the pair had a brief fling, before Mr Belton spurned the married mum-of-five’s advances.
Hewlett was also given an extended five-year license period on top of her custodial sentence, after a judge ruled she was a "dangerous offender".
She denied soliciting murder and stalking, between January 1, 2020, and August 13, last year, but was found unanimously guilty on both charges following an 11-day trial.
The trial heard how the website Hewlett used was an “absolute sham” designed to steal money, and the Bitcoin ended up in a Romanian account.
But prosecutors argued that despite that, she had intended to have the married dad-of-three killed.
Hewlett of King's Lynn, Norfolk, who was given a concurrent three-month sentence for stalking, was earlier cleared of a more serious offence of stalking causing alarm or distress.
Jurors were told how she and Mr Belton had flirted with each other when they were both working at a food factory in Fakenham, Norfolk.
The pair had had a single sexual encounter in her car in the factory's overflow car park, which Mr Belton was said to have immediately regretted.
Judge Katharine Moore told Hewlett today: "You were angry and upset when Paul Belton did not wish to pursue a relationship with you.
"Your response to that rejection was to embark on a course of action which began with attempts to engage him in communication, progressed into stalking and culminated in solicitation to murder."
The trial heard how Hewlett became "utterly fixated" with Mr Belton and repeatedly sent him emails begging to see him again, as well as nude photographs of herself, but he constantly made it clear he did not want anything to do with her.
Even after Mr Belton was made redundant and got a new job, Hewlett got a job in the same factory to pursue him.
She called him a "coward" for not wanting to speak to her and posted comments on Facebook, saying that he "needs shooting in the bollocks".
Hewlett then later quit at the factory in August 2021, claiming she had been bullied by Mr Belton and that he had sexually harassed other women.
Management rejected her claims as "malicious" after Mr Belton showed them emails she had sent him.
The trial heard how in January last year Hewlett set up the crytocurrency account and transferred £22,601 into it from her own accounts across 35 transactions, using savings, an overdraft and two loans from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
She then used a browser to search the dark web before she found the sham site.
Hewlett posted a message under the username "Horses5" in a forum, saying: "Need someone killed in Norfolk - vital it looks like an accident" before exchanging messages with a member of the site called "Marksman".
She transferred Bitcoin worth £20,547 into an account together with Mr Belton's name, home and work addresses, and his picture.
Hewlett was later arrested on August 12 after police traced her Bitcoin payments and officers found she had repeatedly checked up on fatalities in Norfolk, to see if her hit job was acted upon.
Judge Moore said Hewlett had "a vengeful streak" and called her "a dangerous offender" who had shown little remorse.
During her pursuit of Mr Belton, Hewlett ignored warnings from police to stop trying to contact him.
She did not give evidence in court, but told police: "I put a post on a forum. It was to vent more than anything and to say things that I was feeling. It was more stupid than serious. It was a way of making me feel better."
She claimed she believed that Mr Belton would not be harmed until she gave her consent for a hit to go ahead.
Matthew McNiff, defending, described the website as an "absolute sham" and said its claims of providing hitmen as "palpable nonsense".
Mr McNiff added today: "All her attempts were rebuffed and rejected. In the world that she had created for herself, this was something that served a therapeutic purpose."
He added that since her arrest she had been “cut adrift” by her husband and family.
But prosecutor Marti Blair said today: "Mrs Hewlett took every step possible which she could do in terms of wanting to get a hitman to carry out the job.
"She made a deposit, negotiated the price, and made further payments. Even when she was potentially put off because of the price, she ignored that and transferred more money. She believed she was dealing with a genuine hitman."
Mr Belton said in a victim Impact statement read out to the court that he had once been confident and outgoing, but was now left feeling "scared, afraid of everyone" and very wary of strangers.
He added: "I'm now anxious, suffering from anxiety most days of my life now, whether it's getting to and from work, shopping, football. I find myself constantly checking my driveway and am worried if anyone that I don't recognise approaches my house".
Detective Chief Inspector Michael Pereira, of the Specialist Digital & Serious Organised Crime unit for Norfolk and Suffolk police, said after the hearing: "This investigation has been complex and intensive and has involved a number of teams working together which has been critical to secure this conviction.
"We built and gathered evidence for the case identifying a woman using cryptocurrency to arrange for someone to kill the intended victim.
"Cyber-crime investigators looked at her cryptocurrency activity and worked with private industry and regional colleagues to provide evidence of payment transactions between the woman and the 'hit man' on the dark web. This provided crucial evidence in the investigation leading to the successful conviction today.
"This case really demonstrates a true team effort between serious crime disruption team, cybercrime investigators and regional colleagues to safeguard individuals from harm and tackle these types of crime which can have huge impact on the victims and their family."
