A WOMAN accused of murdering her love rival told police she was ill in bed reading Game Of Thrones on the night of the killing.

Sarah Williams, 35, claims she did not leave her home on the evening of January 14 when Sadie Hartley, 60, was paralysed with a stun gun as she opened the front door of her detached property in Helmshore and was then stabbed to death.

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The victim, a medical communications director, was found face down in a pool of blood by police the following night.

Williams, said to have been obsessed with Ms Hartley’s partner, Ian Johnston, was arrested in the early hours of January 17 and later interviewed.

When told by detectives that she had been arrested on suspicion of murder, Williams replied: “I would say that is a sentence I would never have expected anybody to say to me.”

Asked if she was responsible for the death of Ms Hartley, she added: “No, definitely not. Definitely not.”

The customer sales adviser explained she had been sent home ill from her job at Crystal Ski Holidays in Manchester’s Chill Factore on the afternoon of January 14.

She rang her 75-year-old lover, David Hardwick, on her way home to Blacon, Chester, and he met up with her there, Preston Crown Court heard.

He made her cups of tea and walked her dog before he left her in bed, she told police.

After reading Game Of Thrones, she then fell asleep until her dog woke her up at about 9pm.

Williams then went back to sleep and Mr Hardwick came round “as usual” at 5am the next day before she later went back into work, she said.

The Crown says her account of her whereabouts is a lie and that she brutally murdered Ms Hartley just after 8pm.

Ex-fireman Mr Johnston was said to have jilted Williams in 2014 after she became possessive and difficult.

The jury has heard Williams informed Ms Hartley in September 2014 that her partner had been cheating and that sex was “unbelievably fantastic”.

She also accused her love rival of attempting to “trap” Mr Johnston with money.

Williams and her friend, Katrina Walsh, 56, are then said to have spent 17 months plotting the murder of Ms Hartley.

Williams and Walsh, of Hare Lane, Chester, deny murder.

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