Woman accused of love-rival murder ‘was shown how to use cattle prod stun gun and tried to buy a stronger one’

A WOMAN jointly accused of a ‘demonic’ murder tried to buy a stun gun even stronger than 500,000 volts, with alleged killer Sarah Williams accused of later using the weapon to paralyse her victim Sadie Hartley.

Sarah Williams was even given a demonstration on how to use the 500,000 volt stun gun when she bought the weapon from a German store - but asked the shop assistant if there was an even more powerful weapon available.

The court heard Williams and her co-accused Katrina Walsh went to Darmstadt near Frankfurt in German in December last year, just one month before Sadie's murder.

Shop assistant Anna Schanz told the court, through an interpreter, that the two women had wanted to buy pepper spray, batons and an "electro shocker" stun gun.

She said: "She wanted to buy a stronger one but we were out of the stronger one which is why she bought this one. I told her that we only sold the stronger one for export and it would not be legal to purchase one in Germany.

"She did not know how to use the electro shocker. I showed her and gave her a demonstration and then she tried. I explained to her that it can only be used on the shoulders, tummy and hips."

Ms Schanz told the court that Williams had even asked for a one million volt stun gun.

Cross examined by Mr Tony Cross,QC , for Walsh, Miss Schanz said that she had explained the dangers of using the gun on the head, neck or heart region.

She said that she had told Williams that there was a " risk of death " if used on those areas of the human body.

The jury were shown the type of stun gun , encased in a red box, which the prosecution claim was bought by Williams and Walsh in Germany.

The shop assistant identified the two women when British police showed her their photographs.

The court revelation comes after the jury heard her co-accused Katrina Walsh, 56, even tried to recruit her ex-husband into the plot, with the woman making contact with warehouseman Kevin Walsh out of the blue in August last year he told Preston Crown Court.

He claimed that his ex, who he split from in 2008, was attempting to set up a meeting between him and her co-accused Sarah Williams for something “nefarious”.

Katrina Walsh and Williams, 35, are both on trial for murder after businesswoman Sadie Hartley was found dead in a pool of blood in the hall of her £500,000 house in Helmshore, Lancashire, on January 14.

Mr Walsh said Williams called him days after his ex-wife had, saying she had a "job" suiting his "particular key skills" but did not want to discuss it over the phone and wanted to meet in a pub.

But Mr Walsh told the jury Williams was using a "burner" or untraceable, pay-as-you-go mobile phone and he soon got cold feet and backed out, thinking Williams was "up to no good."

He added: "The alarm bells were going off in my head."

He told the court how he married the defendant in 1984 and they shared interests in motorcycles, horse riding and Viking re-enactment battles.

But he had a "mid-life crisis" and left Walsh for another woman in 2008 though the two were soon reconciled and in a "cordial" relationship again as friends.

The court also heard how Katrina Walsh feared Williams would frame her for the crime and then poison her, leaving behind a faked confession.

Mr Walsh said after his former wife of 24 years was arrested for Ms Hartley's murder he visited her in prison.

He told of the concerns his ex, known as Kit, had shared with him.

Wearing a sleeveless leather biker's jerkin, revealing heavily tattooed arms, Mr Walsh told the jury: "She said it was all due to Sarah. Sarah was trying to frame her for it.

"The idea was that Sarah was going to poison her on the Saturday night and leave a printed confession on the murder. Fortunately, Sarah was arrested before she was able to do that, but Kit had visions of Sarah finishing the job at a later date."

In a letter from jail, Walsh had also written to him saying: "I have a very big incentive for her to be found guilty.

"She thought she had more time and my printer was out of ink or I'd have died on Saturday.

“So I really want her convicted and away for a good long time because I don't fancy my chances if she's out."

Mr Walsh said the "incentive" was because "Kit was in fear of her life from Sarah."

Walsh is alleged to have helped plan the murder plot, committed with "demonic savagery" by Williams who paralysed her victim with a stun gun before stabbing her 40 times with a kitchen knife.

"Jealous" Williams is alleged to have murdered Ms Hartley in an "orgy of violence" because she was having an affair with her love-rival's partner, ex-fireman Ian Johnston, 57. Both women deny murder.

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