Sadie Hartley murder trial latest
ALLEGED stun gun murderer Sarah Williams had an affair with another ski instructor who was married with two children, a jury has heard.
Ms Williams, 35, had a relationship with Somapat Sitiwatjana, 47, after he taught her to ski at Manchester’s Chill Factore indoor ski centre five years ago, Preston Crown Court was told.
The fling allegedly ended before the defendant went on to meet ski instructor Ian Johnston, 57, who was said to have jilted her after she became possessive and difficult.
The Crown say Ms Williams’s obsession with exfireman Mr Johnston drove her to murder his partner, Sadie Hartley, 60, at her home in Helmshore on January 14 this year.
Thai-born Mr Sitiwatjana, who runs a martial arts gym, said he broke off his relationship with Ms Williams after she “got too close”.
His wife of 25 years, Janet, found out he had been unfaithful when Ms Williams visited the family home while he was away in Thailand in 2012, Preston Crown Court heard.
A letter was also sent to Mrs Sitiwatjana at around the same time. The witness said he and Ms Williams would meet up in hotels for sex but he did not see it as a serious relationship.
John McDermott QC, prosecuting, asked: “Did there come a time when she wanted it to be a serious relationship?”
Mr Sitiwatjana said: “She wanted to see more and more of me.”
The prosecutor said: “Did you want that to happen?”
He replied: “No, because I have my own business to run and I have my own family.”
Asked why he decided to end the affair, he said: “She got too close.”
He said he returned to the UK from Thailand in September 2012 and he and his wife “talked it over”.
He described how Ms Williams went on to turn up unannounced at his gym in Manchester and park outside in her car.
Mr Sitiwatjana said she would drive off quickly when he spotted her, but on one occasion he asked why she was there and Ms Williams told him she was seeing a friend.
He recalled an incident where all four tyres of his Mercedes Benz car were deflated in the Chill Factore car park.
Mr Sitiwatjana said he did not have a lot of enemies.
He agreed with Gordon Cole QC, defending Ms Williams, that he had told Ms Williams he loved her “many, many times” in text messages and that they called each other “sweetie”.
Some of the texts were also “very graphic sexual texts”, he agreed.
He denied that Ms Williams’s then partner, 75-year-old businessman David Hardwick, was the cause of arguments between the pair during their affair.
Mr Cole said: “You had a view of David, that he was her ‘sugar daddy’?” The witness replied: “Yes, sir.”
Mr Cole said: “And she didn’t like you using that phrase?”
Mr Sitiwatjana said: “I don’t remember.”
Mr Cole said: “She would correct you when you used that phrase about David. She would say ‘Don’t say that, don’t use that phrase’?”
The witness said: “I don’t remember.”
Mr Sitiwatjana also said he could not recall asking Ms Williams to send photographs of her to him.
He said he did not remember either being in text message and WhatsApp contact with Williams while he was in Thailand and then again in October 2012.
Mr Cole asked: “Did you ever see her again and restart your relationship in May and June of 2013?”
Mr Sitiwatjana replied: “No, sir.”
Ms Williams, 35, a customer sales adviser at Crystal Ski Holidays - based at the Chill Factore - is said to have incapacitated Ms Hartley with a stun gun before stabbing her more than 40 times with “demonic savagery”.
The court has previously heard that she sent a letter to Ms Hartley in September 2014 detailing her relationship with Mr Johnston.
Ms Williams, of Treborth Road, Blacon, Chester, denies murder. Her coaccused, horse riding instructor Katrina Walsh, 56, also of Chester, also denies murder.
Mrs Walsh is said to have helped her friend with the killing and allegedly wrote about staging the “perfect murder” in diaries recovered at her workplace.