King's Lynn: Helen Hewlett jailed after hitman hiring trial

Helen Hewlett, 44, turned to a site on the dark web called Online Killers Market in her efforts to pay someone to murder Paul Belton, 50, with whom she had become “utterly fixated”.

Hewlett was given an extended 12-and-a-half-year sentence - made up of seven-and-a-half years in custody and five years extended licence - at Norwich Crown Court on Friday (May 5).

It came after she was found guilty of soliciting his murder following a 10-day trial earlier this year.

Jailing Hewlett, who was also found guilty of stalking, Judge Katharine Moore said she had shown a "vengeful streak" towards Mr Belton who she had been "angry, hurt and upset" with after he rejected her interest in him.

Judge Moore said it acted as an "accelerant" in her acting to solicit his murder which she did via the dark web “to avoid detection”. 

She said Hewlett had been searching newspaper websites, including the EDP, "to check out whether your solicitation to murder had been acted upon”.

Judge Moore added: “Fortunately because you were duped there was no contract killer.”

But she said it was “troubling” Hewlett, who was deemed to be a dangerous offender, who seemed to enjoy “holding the power of life and death over an individual”. 

Before Hewlett, of the Hawthorns in King's Lynn, was sentenced, the court heard statements from Mr Belton who said he had been a "confident, outgoing and happy person" prior to the offences.

But he became "scared", anxious and even put "a mirror on his desk at work to view anyone who approached his desk from behind".

Helen Hewlett is on trial at Norwich Crown Court accused of stalking and soliciting the murder of Paul Belton (Image: Twitter/East Anglia News Service)

He also said "giving evidence in court was the worst thing I've ever had to do in my life" adding he felt like the accused rather than the victim.

He said: "I wouldn't wish this experience on my worst enemy."

The trial heard Hewlett became infatuated with Mr Belton when they were both working together at the Linda McCartney vegetarian food factory in Fakenham.

After he spurned her Hewlett had “become obsessed with him” and started bombarding him with emails containing threats and explicit images of herself. 

When he moved to another Fakenham factory, Kinnerton Confectionery, she also got a job there in order to pursue a relationship.

Helen Hewlett and Paul Belton met at the Linda McCartney food factory in Fakenham (Image: Newsquest)

But when he did not respond to her advances she made false allegations of sexual harassment and posted messages on Facebook that he “needed shooting”.

She then turned to the dark web uploading Mr Belton’s details using the name Horses5 on to Online Killers Market, which purported to supply hitmen, with a post stating “need someone killed in Norfolk - vital it looks like an accident”.

Hewlett also used all her savings, loans and an overdraft to pay more than £17,000 in Bitcoin into a supposed Escrow deposit account on the website.

Marti Blair, prosecuting at the sentencing hearing on Friday (May 5) said Hewlett had taken "every step possible that she could do in terms of getting the hitman to carry out the job".

She said Hewlett "believed she had been dealing with a genuine hitman enterprise" and had "believed there was a hitman out there that was to carry out the hit that she had ordered".

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Matthew McNiff, representing Hewlett, said nothing he said was meant to take away from what happened to Mr Belton but told the court how the defendant's family had "cut her adrift".

He said "she has no one" and sat in Peterborough Prison with no visitors.

Mr McNiff said she now accepted what she had done was wrong and that she has caused harm.

Hewlett was also made the subject of a restraining order prohibiting her from contacting Mr Belton or his family directly or indirectly until further order.