Life for 'fatal attraction' lovers

At the end of a

two-week trial, the jury at Nottingham Crown Court took less than

three hours to convict mother-of-three Noeleen Hendley, 46, of murder.

Paul Buxton, 41, the hitman hired by Hendley and her lover to kill her

46-year-old husband Tony, also was convicted of murder. Each denied the

charge.

Hendley's lover, Terry McIntosh, 46, had already pleaded guilty to

murder.

Hendley collapsed in the dock after the sentences were announced and

she was carried out by several prison officers.

Moments later, fist fights erupted in the public gallery and police

officers moved in to separate rival factions.

Sentencing them, Mr Justice Holland said the case was distinguished by

a wickedness that would long be in the memory of anyone who had been

involved in it or had listened to the evidence.

Mr Justice Holland said McIntosh, of Little Eaton, Derby, had become

obsessed with Mrs Hendley and manipulated the situation to suit his

purposes.

For her part, Hendley was besotted with McIntosh and consumed with a

hatred for her husband as a result.

Buxton, who lived in Loscoe, Derbyshire, was in the plot because of

greed, the Judge said.

Mr James Hunte, QC, who appeared for Hendley, claimed she was ''no

cold Lady Macbeth type figure'' but was someone who found herself being

dragged along by what was happening.

Prosecution counsel Brian Escott Cox, QC, described the relationship

as ''a fatal attraction''.

McIntosh had urged Hendley to leave her husband, a catering manager,

but because of her Catholic upbringing she would not consider separation

or divorce.

It was then McIntosh suggested they hire a contract killer -- Paul

Buxton -- to get rid of her husband, at a price of no more than #5500.

On the night of the fatal attack in November last year, Hendley let

Buxton into her home in Breadsall, Derby, to wait for her husband.

When Mr Hendley came in and went upstairs to bed, he was ambushed by a

masked man who bludgeoned him 29 times with a rolling pin.