World's Most Evil Killers - Season 6, Episode 5 - Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: January the 7th, 2016, helm shore Lancashire England.
60-year-old Sadie Hartley was home alone around 9:00 PM in the evening when she answered the doorbell.
Standing there with a bunch of flowers was Katrina Walsh, a woman Sadie had never met.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Sadie asked her who the flowers were from, and Walsh just kind of uttered something
like, I don't remember, and then scuttled away. NARRATOR: This was a dry run for a murder plot meticulously
planned by two women. And all the while, Sarah Williams was hiding behind a parked car, watching her prey.
NARRATOR: Seven days later when Sadie answered the doorbell again, 500,000 volts of electricity
knocked her to the floor. NAZIA PARVEEN: Essentially, there was no chance that she would survive it.
NARRATOR: Sadie Hartley lay helpless as she was stabbed to death by Sarah Williams.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: It was a crime of obsession, of arrogance, of barbarity. But above all, it was a crime of pure evil.
NARRATOR: In four minutes and 40 seconds, Sarah Williams had dispensed of Sadie Hartley.
She calmly left the scene and returned to her accomplice, Katrina Walsh. After 17 months of planning, an innocent woman lay dead--
a woman Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh didn't even know, making them two of the world's
most evil killers. [theme music] 1993, The Wirral, North West England. 12-year-old Sarah Williams was passionate about horses
and a very good equestrian sportswoman. GEOFFREY WANSELL: She met a riding instructor much older
than she was-- a good 20 years or more, older than she was, called Katrina Walsh
at a local riding stables. NARRATOR: Despite the age gap, the two women bonded through their shared love of horses
and became firm friends. Over the next few years, they formed an intense, almost
inseparable relationship. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When people saw the friendship, the very
close friendship, between Williams and Walsh, because they spent so much time together
in and out of each other's houses, in each other's pockets all the time, I think there were some suspicions that they
were more than just friends, that this was an intimate relationship. NARRATOR: As Williams grew up, she
became known as an incorrigible flirt and had a series of male lovers. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think Williams
does very much see men as a challenge, especially married men. I think this idea of going out and turning on the charm
and having somebody fall for you, it's something that she finds quite appealing.
NARRATOR: When Sarah Williams set her sights on a man, no one was going to get in her way.
Her best friend, Katrina Walsh, was only too willing to help her get what she wanted.
And what Sarah Williams wanted was a man called Ian Johnston, whom she was in a relationship with.
NAZIA PARVEEN: He describes having really friendly and then getting on straight away.
And then one night, after they'd known each other for a few months, she turns up at his house in a short skirt,
red heels, and the intimacy was immediate, and the relationship was physical straight away.
NARRATOR: Williams had met the man she wanted to marry, but Ian Johnston had a long-term partner called Sadie Hartley.
Williams and Walsh decided that Sadie Hartley was a problem that needed to go away.
This didn't happen in the heat of the moment. This was a murder plot that these two women
had spent 17 months planning. And I think that's what makes it so horrific. This wasn't a crime of passion.
This was a crime of obsession. She was obsessed with Sadie Hartley's partner, Ian Johnston.
She wanted to get rid of her, and she did. NARRATOR: Williams and Walsh thought they'd
committed the perfect murder. They were in it together, until they were caught. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Williams maintains her innocence
steadfastly, and Walsh confesses but doesn't confess to killing Hartley herself.
She says Williams did it. The friendship is fractured. Williams absolutely, brazenly fronts it up, and says,
nothing to do with me. Williams is still living in her own parallel universe. NARRATOR: These killers stories begin in 1960.
Katrina Walsh was born on February the 4th in Middlesex. Sarah Williams was born 21 years later on the 8th of May 1981
in Merseyside. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Sarah Williams was an only child, daughter of an electrician, perfectly reasonable,
apparently, as a girl, had a lazy eye which saw her get bullied a bit at school.
She went to private school, well-educated and capable, very capable. But when she got into her teens as she grew older,
she realized that she was quite attractive to men. And this was something that she really seized upon.
So those feelings of shame and inadequacy that she'd had when she was younger, they were counteracted by this-- this validation
that she got from the attention of men. NARRATOR: Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh met in 1993.
Williams loved horses and went to the riding school where Walsh stabled her own horse
and was a riding instructor. They became firm and enduring friends. Was there a sexual relationship
between Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh, a woman much, much older than her, who suffered from terrible alopecia
and almost no hair? She was almost always wearing a bandanna, or a hat, or a cap.
If you look at the pictures of them both, they couldn't be more different. But there was something very strong,
something very powerful keeping that relationship together. When Williams was 13 years old,
she claimed to have been assaulted by a man who had stopped to fix his car. And this was an allegation that the police took very seriously,
and they investigated it. There were appeals for information from the public put out at the time.
So this is a very pivotal moment in Williams's life, whether or not this story was a true one.
NARRATOR: Nobody was ever charged with the abduction, and there were suspicions that Williams
had made the whole story up. In 1999, when Sarah Williams was 17 years old and still
at school, she met 57-year-old married father, David Hardwick, at the riding school.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Hardwick is a shadowy figure throughout this story. Hardwick is her benefactor, her sugar daddy.
He gives her enormous amounts of money over the years. He's married to someone much more of his own age.
They never divorced. Williams knows from a very early age that the power her sexual drive has,
and she uses it to her full advantage. NARRATOR: Sarah Williams left school at the age of 18,
from 2005 to 2013, she worked for a bank selling personal insurance. In 2006, she moved away from home
and bought her first house, largely bankrolled by David Hardwick, who also paid her a weekly allowance
of 320 pounds. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Hardwick is a consistent support to Williams throughout her life.
Now, you can speculate about why, you can speculate about what was Hardwick getting out of it.
On the surface, not very much, apart, I suspect, from a great deal of sex. NARRATOR: William's best friend, Katrina Walsh,
married her husband Kevin in 1984, nine years before she met Sarah Williams. Walsh was quite an eccentric character.
She was somebody who shared William's love of horse-riding, and that is how they met.
She was into tarot cards. She was quite heavily tattooed, and she was a biker. She was interested in motorbikes.
And these were some passions that she shared with her husband, Kevin. GEOFFREY WANSELL: And Kevin and Katrina, and then, believe it
or not, Hardwick and Williams, develop a sort of foursome, and they go on expeditions together.
In a horse box, they take their horses. He's got sleeping accommodation. It's a very big horse box.
And at one point, Kevin Walsh, Katrina's husband, describes it as a purple passion wagon.
And then in 2008, Katrina Walsh and Kevin divorced. He's had an affair with somebody else.
He goes off, he moves to Catterick in North Yorkshire, leaves The Wirrall all behind him.
NAZIA PARVEEN: He felt that the relationship between Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh
was dysfunctional. There was always this thing where he felt like, if he hadn't had left,
Katrina would never have got as close as she did with Sarah because he would have been there
to stop that from happening. But Williams was also a long way from being monogamous.
I think she had a great many affairs, probably to the consternation, or perhaps,
to the amusement of Hardwick. He certainly didn't seem to object. NARRATOR: The day before her 30th birthday, Sarah Williams
was driving on the M60 motorway in Manchester when she passed the unique structure
of the city's indoor ski center, the Chill Factore. She now knew what she wanted as a birthday present
from her boyfriend David Hardwick. Hardwick was not as enthusiastic about Williams' new hobby as she was, because he was slightly older,
perhaps less inclined to engage in-- in this kind of vigorous physical activity.
But Williams dragged him along. And I think part of her enjoyed the attention that she got from men at the Chill Factore,
but also that the jealousy, I think, that Hardwick would have felt when he saw these relationships developing.
NARRATOR: Williams and Hardwick became regulars at the Chill Factore. Williams love being there so much,
she left her job to join a ski travel company based in the complex as a sales advisor.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Williams, who is by now rather an athletic woman-- she's more than 5' 10", she's strong,
big shoulders, muscular body-- rapidly becomes a really rather good skier. She really enjoys it.
And she-- it becomes her second home, almost. Selling insurance, it's not quite as
much fun as the dry ski slopes. NARRATOR: While working at the Chill Factore, Sarah Williams had several romantic affairs,
mainly with married men who were ski instructors. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The affairs that she
has with married men, they only end when she decides that they have ended. And when the men decide that they've had enough,
she reacts very badly indeed. NARRATOR: In August 2013, Sarah Williams met 57-year-old retired fireman, Ian Johnston,
an expert telomere skier who was working as an instructor at the Chill Factore. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He's actually been in a relationship
for some time at this point for a number of years with a businesswoman, tiny bit older
than he is, in her later 50s at this point, called Sadie Hartley. But it's-- it's been on and off, and Johnston--
well, he falls for the-- for the flirt. He falls for the-- the femme fatale, or as she was later to describe
herself, the she-devil. NARRATOR: Sarah Williams and Ian Johnston's illicit relationship
was developing rapidly. Williams began telling her friends that she'd met her ideal man, and she
was determined to keep him. GEOFFREY WANSELL: We have an extraordinary series of relationships.
We have Williams and Walsh, closer now that Kevin Walsh has gone off, we have Williams and Hardwick,
we have Williams and Johnston, and we have Johnston and Sadie Hartley. A great amalgam of relationships.
All of them, in a way, driven by Williams's sexual desire. NARRATOR: Sarah Williams was besotted with Ian Johnston.
Although he was no longer seeing Sadie when he met Williams, they remain close. He was definitely somebody who, you know,
was very confident with women, was used to getting lots of attention, enjoyed that attention.
And so the fact that he ended up having this affair with Sarah Williams felt like it could easily
have happened with his sort of personality type. Sarah Williams would watch for when Ian Johnston would
come to the Chill Factore. She would get colleagues to tell her if his car was in the car park.
Ian Johnston was her perfect man. He was a man that she wanted to marry. So I guess she saw Sadie Hartley as the obstacle to that.
She was the enemy, and she had to be got rid of. NARRATOR: Sadie Hartley lived in the village of Helmshore
in Lancashire. She was a divorced mother with two adult children. A successful woman who ran her own medical conference
business. And she also loved riding her horse that she kept at a local stable. In September 2014, Sarah Williams
sent a letter to Sadie Hartley. NAZIA PARVEEN: In this letter, Sarah Williams personally attacks Sadie Hartley and adds
in that the sex with Ian is fantastic, and they can't get enough of each other, and essentially said they were having sex all the time.
And it was the best-- that, like, the best sex she'd-- she'd ever had. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: And what is actually said within the letter
is very revealing about the kind of person that Williams is. She is not putting the responsibility onto Ian,
she is putting all of the responsibility onto Sadie. This isn't about Ian's continual decision to engage
in an affair with her. This is about Sadie acting as a barrier to her having a more full relationship with Ian Johnston.
MEL BARHAM: But the letter didn't work to split them up because it was just a few weeks later that, in fact, Sadie
and Ian moved in together. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: She thinks that she's justified in behaving in this way.
She feels entitled to this man. So all of the behavior that she engages in, she thinks
is perfectly reasonable. NARRATOR: The letter did not deter Sadie Hartley or disrupt her relationship with Ian Johnston.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Well, that just makes Williams even more furious. She hasn't managed to split up Hartley and Johnston
to get Johnston back. In fact, rather the opposite. I think, probably Johnston felt more loyal now to Sadie Hartley
than he had done before. NARRATOR: In October 2014, before moving in with Sadie Hartley, Ian Johnston officially ended his relationship
with Sarah Williams. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: What has just been a bit of fun, I think, on his part, he decides to call an end to this.
But Williams doesn't accept this. She's the one who's in control in her relationship.
She decides when they're over. And-- and she simply does not accept his decision.
NARRATOR: Johnston's physical relationship with Williams was over, but they continue to text
and see each other at the Chill Factore where they both worked. These text messages were, like, quite explicit in nature.
There were naked images in them. So although Ian said their relationship had come
to an end, there was an aspect of the relationship that was still going on. But she attached meaning to that communication
that wasn't actually there. So it shows just how completely at odds both of these individuals were in terms
of their understanding of what their relationship really was. At some point, in the late summer of 2014,
Williams and Walsh begin to have what are could only be called chilling conversations about getting rid of Williams'
love rival, Sadie Hartley. Walsh starts to keep a diary of these conversations. At one point, I think, she writes
in it, she does sound like a totally evil bitch, of Sadie Hartley. And nothing could, in fact, have been further from the truth.
But nevertheless, this is the venom that is supplied to Walsh by Williams. MEL BARHAM: There were all sorts of things
that Katrina Walsh wrote in that diary which really revealed, I suppose, what her true feelings
were about what was going on. NARRATOR: The fantasy of dispensing with Sadie Hartley became an obsessive pastime
for Williams and Walsh. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: For this to go on for the period of time
that it did, there were multiple opportunities for Walsh to put the brakes on it, to go and tell the police, to tell
a friend, to actually get something done about what was going to happen to it, to basically
stop this from happening. But she chose not to. NARRATOR: By August 2015, 10 months after Ian Johnston had
officially ended his relationship with Sarah Williams, a murder plot that should
have stayed in the realms of fantasy was becoming ever more real. GEOFFREY WANSELL: In the late summer of 2014,
Walsh suggests to Williams that she approach Walsh's ex-husband, Kevin, who happens to be a keen archer,
to become, would you believe it, a hit man and kill Sadie Hartley. Well, Kevin Walsh is absolutely having none of it.
Absolutely turns it down flat. It's ridiculous. By this point, they've begun to enter what you might describe
as a parallel universe. NAZIA PARVEEN: There were burner phones acquired. It was something akin to a plot in--
in a spy novel. And whilst they were planning all of this, at the same time, Katrina Walsh was detailing every single part
of their planning in her diary. So literally, every little thing that they did, she would put a note in her diary.
So they've got burner phones. Now they know that Johnston, who moved in with Sadie
Hartley in November 2014, but they don't know where he lives with her. They don't know where Sadie Hartley's house is.
So they-- believe it or not, they buy a tracker device for his car, which Sarah Williams puts on his car.
NARRATOR: Sarah Williams bought the first tracker on Katrina Walsh's credit card.
The tracker led them to the house Sadie Hartley now shared with Ian Johnston in Helmshore.
The two women embarked on several reconnaissance missions to familiarize themselves with the property
and surrounding location. GEOFFREY WANSELL: So the plan is escalating quite steadily.
There's been the poison pen letter, the attempt to hire Kevin. We've got the burner phones.
We have the tracker device on Ian Johnston's car. We now know where Johnston and Sadie Hartley live.
So they decide, and I think this is a time when, perhaps, Katrina Walsh makes a bigger contribution,
Katrina suggests to Sarah Williams that it's gonna be much easier to kill Sadie Hartley
if she has a stun gun. NARRATOR: 2nd of December 2015, Greater Manchester. It was the night of the Chill Factorises Christmas party.
The first tracker placed on Ian Johnston's car had failed. While the party was in full swing,
Sarah Williams left the party and attached a second tracker to Ian Johnston's car.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: So she buys this tracking device that she puts on Ian Johnston's vehicle.
And there are times when she-- she has to remove it from the vehicle. And when she does, she's carrying
it around in her own handbag. And what she doesn't realize is that the company she's bought
the tracker from are also able to access the data that the tracker is sending out.
So-- so this is a really ill-conceived plan. It's very badly thought through. The two women, Williams and Walsh,
spend hours together plotting what they think and hope will be the perfect murder.
Walsh is overjoyed at the involvement, and Williams is utterly determined. They're going to kill Sadie Hartley come what may.
NARRATOR: On the 9th of December 2015, Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh boarded a ferry
from Hull to Rotterdam and drove to Germany to buy a stun gun. NAZIA PARVEEN: Then it starts to really feel like they're
actively thinking about doing it because now, they're purchasing weapons. [instrumental music]
NARRATOR: Early in the new year on January the 4th, 2016, Sarah Williams sent a text to Katrina Walsh.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Williams says to Walsh, the time is coming. Go and do your shopping.
And so Walsh goes to Tesco and buys a considerable kitchen knife and uses her club card so there
can't be any doubt about who bought the kitchen knife. NARRATOR: Walsh was captured on CCTV
at a Tesco supermarket in Broughton buying a large kitchen knife. The following day on January the 5th,
Sarah Williams retrieved the tracker from Ian Johnston's car. Again, she placed the tracker in her handbag
without turning it off. On January the 6th, Ian Johnston went to Switzerland on a skiing holiday.
Sadie Hartley was going to join him 10 days later. Until then, she was home alone in Helmshore.
Williams and Walsh knew Ian Johnston was out of the way, safely in Switzerland. They knew where Sadie Hartley lived, but neither of them
knew her by sight. They decided that a final reconnaissance mission was needed, a dry run for the murder.
The pair decided that they would drive up together to Lancashire. They bought a cheap bunch of flowers from Tesco.
And the pair drove up to her road. They got out of the car, walks up the streets.
And Katrina Walsh walks up to Sadie Hartley's door, knocked on the door, and delivered
these flowers in person. And all the while, Sarah Williams was hiding behind a parked car, watching her prey.
And when Sadie Hartley asked who the flowers were from, Katrina Walsh said she couldn't remember, and she ran off.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Here, you have this person in front of you and who is a human being.
Somebody who's asking you a question. And I think this is the first time that-- that Sadie becomes
that-- that real living, breathing person that Walsh has been writing about quite
abstractly in her diaries. NARRATOR: Sadie Hartley was unnerved by the delivery of the bunch of flowers and the strange woman
who delivered them. She contacted Ian Johnston in Switzerland who knew nothing about the creepy delivery
as Sadie described it to him. For the practice run, Katrina Walsh had driven to Helmshore in her own car.
Williams decided it would be unwise to use their personal vehicles on the night of the real event.
On Sunday, January the 10th, 2016, Sarah Williams set about looking for a suitable second vehicle.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: So they have to buy a car that won't be identified as belonging to either of them.
Williams and Walsh search for one, and eventually purchased an elderly Renault Clio.
But they do more than that. They also make sure that the number plate, which is on the Clio, is changed so it doesn't get recognized
by the automated number recognition system used by most British police forces. And Walsh does quite a clever job
of turning the number 3 into the number 8 with a black tape. NARRATOR: On Tuesday, January the 12th,
2016, Sarah Williams made what she thought was another clever move. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Williams purchased a pair of boots that
were several sizes too large for her so that that would throw the police off the scent, and they would think
that the perpetrator was somebody who was male or, at least, somebody who was much bigger than she was.
NARRATOR: On the 14th of January, Sarah Williams went to work at the Chill Factore as normal.
At 3:00 PM, she texted David Hardwick to tell him she was feeling unwell and going home early.
An hour later, Hardwick visited Williams at home and left soon after. A little while later, Hardwick received a text from Williams.
"Just had another cup of tea. Going to switch light off and have a nap now. Will ring when I wake up as long as not late."
Katrina Walsh arrived at Sarah Williams' home. Several minutes later, the two women emerged from the house
and walked to the parked Renault Clio. Walsh returned alone to Williams' home. On the night of the 14th of January 2016,
Walsh drives to Williams' home and stays there incidentally to look after Sarah Williams' dog,
as well as everything else. While Sarah Williams takes the Renault Clio, which has been hidden in a car park nearby,
and drives it from there to Sadie Hartley's house. Sadie Hartley that day has been at work, in a perfectly
normal way, in her office. She goes home at the end of the afternoon, and in fact,
goes out to tend to her horse in the stables. She gets back to the house about half past seven.
MEL BARHAM: Sarah Williams parked her car and very calmly walked up to Sadie Hartley's door.
And as soon as Sadie Hartley opened the door, she lunged at her with this stun gun, incapacitating her.
And then, she stabs her over 40 times. And the whole murder, the whole attack, took just four minutes and 40 seconds.
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: After 17 months of meticulous planning, Sadie Hartley, the woman standing between Sarah Williams
and the love of her life, Ian Johnston, was dead. So in four minutes, she's ended the life of Sadie Hartley
with 41 stab wounds. It's the most depraved, disgusting, horrifying crime. You cannot imagine the brutality of that.
And yet, Sarah Williams is as cool as could be. She's very careful. She closes the door.
She takes the murder weapon with her and, of course, the stun gun. Back to the car, gets in the car,
drives back to Katrina Walsh. NARRATOR: Williams met Walsh at a designated rendezvous in a car park at Ellesmere Port.
They abandoned the Renault Clio and drove home in Walsh' car. Once home, Williams had a plan to cover their tracks.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: She gave all of the-- the evidence, all of the incriminating evidence
to Walsh to get rid of. So she just wants it off her plate. She doesn't want any connection with these items.
And she believes that Walsh is just going to dispose of them. And Williams will later ensure that there
is no forensic evidence on her. She'll have a bath, she'll have a bit of a clean up when
she gets home. But all of that really compelling evidence is now in the hands of Walsh.
NARRATOR: The following day, Williams went to work at the Chill Factore as normal.
Katrina Walsh also went to work at Collinge Farm stables, taking the incriminating evidence with her.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Most of us when we hurt someone, when we upset somebody, we feel guilty about it.
We feel bad. We're not quite ourselves afterwards. But Williams is completely different.
She's able to just pick up and get on with her life. And I'm sure she's thinking about the next stage
of the plan here, of getting Ian Johnston back. NARRATOR: The day after the murder on Friday the 15th
of January, a concerned colleague of Sadie Hartley's called the police, who went to the house in Helmshore
and found her lying dead in the hallway. Former Detective Superintendent David Swindle
has been the attending senior officer at numerous murder scenes. DAVID SWINDLE: One of the big things
is looking at the victim is to find out what there is in the victim's life that would lead to a possible motive,
and the victim and associates. So the victim's associate was Johnston. He was in a skiing holiday at the time.
So he-- he was contacted. And when he was contacted, he spoke about an obsessive ex-partner, and the police
identified who that was with the assistance of Johnston. NARRATOR: Johnston also told the police
about the strange late night delivery of flowers Sadie had told him about the previous week.
The information provided by Johnston to the police was enough for them to bring Sarah
Williams in for questioning. On Sunday, the 17th of January 2016, she was arrested.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Williams was arrested at 3 o'clock in the morning when she was at her-- her own home.
Her demeanor was quite calm. It was-- was quite cool. She-- she didn't appear to be freaking out.
She didn't appear to be overly upset or overly distressed. And this was a persona that she maintained
throughout her police interview. She seemed very unaffected by the fact that she was being arrested for-- for the most
serious of crimes. NARRATOR: When questioned, Sarah Williams denied any knowledge or involvement
in the murder of Sadie Hartley. After four interviews, she declined to answer any further questions and only replied, no comment.
The police then began investigating the strange flower delivery on the evening of the 7th of January.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: The UK is one of the world's most watched nations in terms of the CCTV and surveillance that we have here.
So every element of the planning of this murder was captured on CCTV. There was ANPR data, as well, Automatic
Number Plate Recognition. So there was this digital trail that these two killers left behind them.
NARRATOR: On the night of January 7, the night of the dry run, CCTV from Sadie's neighbor's house
revealed a figure of about 5 foot 6 wearing a baseball cap. It was unclear if this person was male or female.
Then the police traced the movements of a silver Vauxhall captured driving towards Helmshore,
stopping at a Tesco store in Haslingden, and arriving near Sadie Hartley's home.
The owner of the car was Katrina Walsh. On Monday, the 18th of January 2016, Katrina Walsh was arrested at the riding stables
where she worked. Unlike Sarah Williams, Katrina was unable to stay quiet. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Walsh absolutely
spills the beans before she even gets into the interview room. She's-- she's telling the custody sergeant absolutely
everything about what's-- what's happened, to the extent that the custody sergeant
actually has to say to her, stop, save this for the interview. So the contrast between these two suspects
is really striking. She wants to frame me for it, or kill me and frame me for it.
NARRATOR: Walsh claimed that Williams had committed the murder and that she had unwittingly
been caught up in it. She accompanied the police to the stables where she worked and revealed where she'd hidden
all the incriminating evidence. NAZIA PARVEEN: Everything that had been used in the murder
was right there for them. So in the ground, you had the knife, the stun gun, and the boots--
the boots which had some of Sadie Hartley's blood on them. And in the eaves, you've got Katrina Walsh's diaries which
detail in, you know-- minute detail of how they planned Sadie Hartley's murder. NARRATOR: And the police also discovered that Sarah Williams
hadn't been as clever as she thought in disposing of incriminating evidence. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When she got home,
she had a shower or a bath. She cleaned up with bleach. But there were things that she missed.
So the police were able to get some-- some trace evidence from the bath where there were traces of Sadie's DNA.
They found on Sarah's spectacles some particles of blood that had been transferred during the murder.
So she thought that she'd done a good clean up, but she certainly hadn't. Williams is now in custody under suspicion.
Walsh is now in custody under suspicion. And Walsh provides essentially the evidence
to convict Williams. She has always maintained, throughout the plot that they hatched together, she was never gonna be at what she called
the sharp end of the killing. She wasn't gonna do the killing. She was just gonna assist.
But of course, British law insists that if you are collaborative in a murder, you are equally guilty of murder.
NARRATOR: January 20, 2016, Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were charged with the murder
of Sadie Hartley. Both women denied murdering her. On August 3, 2016, the trial of Sarah
Williams and Katrina Walsh began at Preston Crown Court. MEL BARHAM: They both pointed the finger at each other.
But of course, the prosecution gave a motive. Sarah Williams' motive was to get rid of her love rival, who
she thought was standing in the way of her being with her perfect man, Ian Johnston.
And the motive they gave for Katrina Walsh was to help her friend, but also that she
found the idea of plotting this murder very exciting. NAZIA PARVEEN: Just the salacious nature of it,
everything that came out in court, the level of planning that they went through,
and the fact that they were two women who-- who murdered another woman, and for what really?
A sordid affair that was, you know, no longer even happening. And the way that they kind of viewed it as some kind of game.
And they forgot, in all of that, that it wasn't a game, and they weren't in a novel, and they weren't characters,
and that she was actually a person. NARRATOR: Sarah Williams decided to take the stand in her defense.
There was absolutely no sense of remorse there. The prosecution, I remember, were
trying to talk about Sadie Hartley's family, her daughter, who had just got engaged, and trying
to get her to think about how the family would feel about their murdered mother.
Sarah Williams stood in the dock very calm, and very arrogant, very nonchalant, and just denied having anything to do with it.
NARRATOR: Unlike Sarah Williams, Katrina Walsh chose not to defend herself in court.
Walsh's conduct in court was quite different from that of-- of Williams. Whilst Williams was quite confident, quite
self-assured, Walsh just kind of shrunk into herself. And her conduct was quite similar to-- to that
of her early police interviews. So she didn't make eye contact with anybody. She sat with her head down.
And this is a very kind of childlike response to the situation in which she finds herself.
She just wants it all to go away and that if I don't look at people, they can't look at me.
NARRATOR: The trial lasted for seven weeks. On August 17, 2016, Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were found guilty
of the murder of Sadie Hartley. So Sarah Williams was sentenced to life in prison
with a minimum of 30 years, and another life sentence for Katrina Walsh but a minimum of 25 years.
And despite Katrina Walsh not actually being there at the murder scene on the night of the murder,
she was found to be just as culpable and just as guilty. NARRATOR: When handing down the sentences,
the trial judge was unrestrained in his summation. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Mr Justice Turner, in his sentencing
remarks, points out that in contrast to the life-affirming good spirits of Sadie Hartley,
these are two vile, despicable women. And he says, and I quote, "But let no one make the mistake of thinking this
is a crime of passion. It was a crime of obsession, of arrogance, of barbarity. But above all, it was a crime of pure evil."
NARRATOR: When Sarah Williams wanted a man, no one was going to get in her way. Any love rival became an enemy.
Katrina Walsh was her willing accomplice, thrilled by the game of catching their prey.
Sadie Hartley had no idea she was part of their sick game when she was ruthlessly murdered by these two women,
making Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh two of the world's most evil killers. [theme music]

Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh: the story of two friends who carried out the evil, jealousy-fuelled murder of Sadie Hartley.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers. New episodes including Lee Ford, Pawel Relowicz, John Shaw, John Allen Muhammad, Derrick Todd Lee and more.

Brief Summary

Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh meticulously planned and executed the murder of Sadie Hartley over a 17-month obsession with her partner.

Key points

A Murder Plot Unfolds. Sadie Hartley answers the door to a stranger, setting off a deadly chain of events.
The Crime of Obsession. Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh's 17-month plot culminates in a shocking murder.
The Ill-Fated Tracking Plan. The duo's plan escalates as they purchase a tracker to monitor Sadie Hartley's movements.
The Murder of Sadie Hartley. In a chilling act of violence, Sarah Williams murdered Sadie Hartley in just four minutes.
The Arrest. Sarah Williams and Katrina Walsh were arrested following the murder of Sadie Hartley.
The Trial and Sentencing. Both women were found guilty of murder, receiving life sentences for their roles in the crime.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was a crime of pure evil.

GEOFFREY WANSELL describes the nature of the crime.

1:11WatchAug 10, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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