UK Woman Sentenced for Attempting to Hire a Hitman
Helen Hewlett
According to the Norfolk Police, 44-year-old Helen Hewlett, a mother of five, was sentenced at the Norwich Crown Court after a jury found her guilty of soliciting murder and stalking.
According to evidence presented during Hewlett's trial, Hewlett and her intended victim, Paul Belton, 50, had a single sexual encounter in her car at their workplace's parking lot. Belton reportedly regretted it and cut off ties, while Hewlett became obsessed and constantly contacted Belton looking to continue the relationship.
After being rejected, Hewlett decided to have Belton murdered and went to the dark web to look for a hitman. On July 4, 2022, Hewlett accessed a fraudulent dark web murder-for-hire site called "Online Killers Market". Using the username "horses5", she placed an order saying she wanted someone killed and the murder made to look like an accident.
Hewlett's order
Conversations between horses5 and the site’s admin between August 1, 2022, to August 11, 2022, revealed that Hewlett agreed to pay over $20,000 in Bitcoin for the hit to be carried out. She also supplied Mr Belton's picture, name, and home and work addresses.
Investigations revealed that the Bitcoin deposited into the site's escrow came from Hewlett's Coinbase account. Hewlett had deposited a total of $28,500 into her Coinbase account from her bank accounts in 35 transactions. The deposits included 15,000 in bank overdrafts and loans.
The police arrested Hewlett at her home on August 12, 2022, and seized a phone she had been using to access the dark web. Information recovered from the phone revealed that she had bookmarked three murder-for-hire sites.
Quote:DCI Michael Pereira
We built and gathered evidence for the case identifying a woman using crypto currency 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.
In addition to the prison sentence, Hewlett received five years of supervised release.
Comments (18)
For The URLZ2023-05-11eccb0673
Observer locates above mentioned urlz, locates BTC addresses associated with such urlz, checks to see which deposits to BTC addresses associated with such urlz are Coinbase wallets, obtains probable cause, gets warrant, calls Coinbase and gets all pii associated with the Coinbase address, obtains arrest warrant, party bus shows up at physical address of Coinbase account holder. Above mentioned fraudulent website owner walks with the 20k, Coinbase account holder goes to prison, tax payers buy another cup of coffee, just another day in the office
DNSM2023-05-11b01cb1ba
Looking for a working online forum or place to gather info / talk to other people on here... anyone got recommendations?
Horses72023-05-1103d46ca7
Pretty sure they let them get away with it as it's the same operators running clones of sites from alpha days at least but handing in any info. Who gives a fuck if they're making money, the scum who try and use their sites get boned
Dumpsterfire2023-05-113a0140cb
Staying discreet is the first in the dark web.... outlandish and well deserved
Sad.2023-05-11864f6759
Those poor children. You can tell that this woman didn't get what she needed as a kid to grow into a well-adjusted adult that doesn't do insane things and now the cycle continues with these 5 kids.
Raigad2023-05-1257662a65
This is a warning to 11 I 01 T 01 P. Dean ma'am always take actions that benefit students and not you :(.
fhat_phuck2023-05-1707068cdd
"Online Killers Market" fuckwittery at it's finest. the dimmest of rural England discover the internet.. and buys with bitcoin.
horses42023-05-24e1b8ed4d
"Never stick in crazy"... also laughed at her sending money DIRECTLY from Coinbase...
39873798379832023-05-109b23df6f
if only you knew how bad things really are