Sports Direct worker who tried to hire a dark web hitman to murder her love rival colleague for £1,000 has sentence halved to six years

• Whitney Franks, 27, went on the dark web to hire an assassin to kill Ruut Ruutna
• Her 12-year sentence for soliciting to murder was halved by appeal judges

A Sports Direct worker who tried to hire a hitman to murder her love rival colleague had her sentence halved to six years today.

Whitney Franks, 27, went on the dark web to seek out an assassin to kill Ruut Ruutna after the two women became involved in a love triangle with their boss. She offered £1,000 in BitCoin for the hit.

She hired what she believed to be a gunman linked to the infamous Mexican Sinaloa drugs cartel but the website she used to select the killer turned out to be a scam.

She was jailed for 12 years at Reading Crown Court last September after jurors convicted her of soliciting to murder, but has now had that slashed to six years by appeal judges.

Whitney Franks, 27, (pictured) tried to hire a hitman to murder her love rival colleague. She was jailed for 12 years at Reading Crown Court last September after jurors convicted her of soliciting to murder, but has now had that slashed to six years by appeal judges

Franiks went on the dark web to seek out an assassin to kill colleague Ruut Ruutna (pictured) after the two women became involved in a love triangle with their boss. She offered £1,000 in BitCoin for the hit

Franks tried to hire an assassin on a website claiming it was connected to the cartel and advertising the sale of ‘murder, drugs and guns’.

She wanted a gunman to travel to Milton Keynes and take out Ms Ruutna, providing her intended victim’s home and contact details, London’s Appeal Court heard.

The message she posted to recruit a killer in August 2020 read: ‘I’m looking to hire for the murder of a woman’.

Franks offered £1,000 for the hit and said she could pay more if necessary.

She was exposed by an investigative journalist who accidentally discovered her post while probing the world of Mexican gangsters on the dark web.

At her trial, she claimed she never intended for the kill to be carried out, but the jury rejected her defence and she was convicted.

‘Naive and immature’ Franks hatched her plot after getting snarled up in a tortured love triangle involving her manager, James Prest, and their mutual colleague, Mr Justice Hilliard said.

Franks was torn by anguish after learning Mr Prest had been seeing both of them and accused him of ‘sneaking out’ to Miss Ruutna’s house at night.

The judge who sentenced her said Franks’ crime was committed against the backdrop of Covid and protracted isolation when she was ‘sitting at home in lockdown accessing the dark web’, and may not have thought through what she was doing.

But this week, Franks successfully challenged her 12-year jail stretch in the Appeal Court with claims that it was out of proportion and excessive.

Her barrister, James McCrindell, pointed out that Franks had changed her mind about the kill and only toyed with her murderous web plan for two or three days.

She was of previous ‘outstanding character’, he told the court, has been a model inmate behind bars and is currently doing a course in cat studies.

Franks was torn by anguish after learning her manager, James Prest, (pictured) had been seeing both of them and accused him of ‘sneaking out’ to Miss Ruutna’s house at night

‘She would like a career helping animals in the fullness of time,’ he added.

After an hour-long hearing, Mr Justice Hilliard, who was sitting with two other judges, allowed her appeal, cutting Franks’ sentence from 12 to six years.

He noted the devastating impact of her crime on her victim, who was terrified, suffered panic attacks and even fled Milton Keynes for a time to get over her ordeal.

‘There’s no saying what might have happened if someone in a position to commit murder had contacted Franks,’ said the judge.

‘In the end, they did not and she desisted, but her use of the dark web was a serious aggravating feature of the case, as was her willingness to use a payment device which would have been hard to trace.’

But he noted that there were no clear sentencing guidelines for this novel type of crime, adding: ‘no murder attempt of any sort was ever made or was even feasible.

‘The contact here was merely preparatory and no price had been agreed, although Franks didn’t know that those with whom she was in contact were never going to carry out her wishes.’

He ruled her 12-year jail term excessive and cut it to six years.

Source: Read Full Article