Dark web hitman trial: Mum ‘went on hitman site for revenge’

Helen Hewlett, 43, paid more than £20,000 in Bitcoin as a supposed deposit to a site on the dark web called Online Killers Market.

The mother-of-five was arrested after police linked her to Bitcoin payments made to the website where she had placed an order headed ‘Job in Norfolk UK’ stating: “Need someone killed in Norfolk – vital it looks like an accident”.

She identified the ‘target’ as Paul Belton, 50, with whom she had become infatuated after a brief romantic fling, and included the location of his home, work address and other personal details.

Factory staff trainer Paul Belton who Hewlett is said to have become infatuated with after being spurned a brief fling (Image: East Anglia News Service)

Norwich Crown Court heard she admitted to police during an interview that she had gone on to the dark web looking for “revenge” but denied she intended for her former colleague to be killed. 

“I put a post on a forum. It was to vent more than anything and to say things that I was feeling,” she said.

“It was more stupid than serious. It was a way of making me feel better,” she added. 

The court has heard that prior to posting the advert she placed Bitcoin worth £20,547 into a so-called escrow intermediate linked to the website.

But during the police interview, which was read out in full to jurors on Monday, she insisted she had not intended for the killing to go ahead because she still controlled the funds in the escrow account and believed no-one else had access.

“You have to give your OK for someone to be done,” she told officers.

However she admitted she could not be sure whether the anonymous person she was communicating with on the site, a user named ‘Marksman’, would go ahead anyway. 

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

Prosecuting Marti Blair said after placing the advert she had searched for news articles about fatal road accidents, a body being found in a ditch in King’s Lynn and someone being found dead on Holkham beach.

Following Hewlett’s arrest a marker was placed on Mr Belton’s home address and phone numbers meaning that emergency calls would be treated as an “urgent threat to life”, the court heard.  

Hewlett, of the Hawthorns in King’s Lynn, denies soliciting murder and stalking between January 2021 and August 2022.

The trial continues.