Rachel Fulstow is said to have persuaded her new boyfriend Michael Hillier (right) to attack an old one-night stand, Liam Smith (centre) (Picture: Greater Manchester Police/PA)
The woman at the centre of an alleged revenge murder which saw a former flame shot dead and doused with acid has denied setting it up.
Rachel Fulstow, 37, persuaded her new boyfriend Michael Hillier, 39, to attack an old one-night stand, Liam Smith, jurors at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court have heard.
Mr Smith, 38, was lured from his home in Wigan, shot in the face and then had sulphuric acid poured over him as he lay dying in the street.
Hillier has admitted manslaughter, claiming he only meant to ‘maim and disfigure’ the dad-of-two after being ‘led to believe’ the fling between him and Fulstow was non-consensual.
The jury has heard a secret recording of Hillier made in prison following his arrest weeks after Mr Smith died in which he says: ‘We both wanted him to suffer, you know what I mean, it wasn’t the intention for him to end up dead.
‘It was basically to maim him, disable him and then to pour the acid on his face to disfigure him so he was scarred for life, like she was scarred for life.’
Liam Smith was shot and subjected to an acid attack before his body was found in Wigan on November 24 (Picture: PA)
Rachel Fulstow is on trial at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, accused of his murder (Picture: PA)
Michael Hillier has admitted the manslaughter of Liam Smith but denies murder (Picture: PA)
Michael Hayton KC, defending Fulstow, who denies murder, put to her allegations that her co-accused Hillier had made against her.
He said: ‘Did you persuade Michael Hillier to wreak revenge on Liam Smith? Did you know he was going to do it before he went to shoot and pour acid on him?’
‘No,’ Fulstow replied.
Earlier, Fulstow said she met Mr Smith through Tinder and he travelled to York to meet up in September 2019.
They went out and got drunk and they ended up having sex – but she said it was not consensual.
Fulstow said she did not regard the episode as ‘rape’ and would not call it that.
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She said: ‘He apologised, we spoke about it and I accepted that and we carried on. It was non-consensual but that is not the word (rape) I have used or have ever used. I just wanted to forget about it.’
Mr Hayton continued: ‘Had you wanted Michael Hillier to carry out this attack as a consequence of what happened in 2019?’
Fulstow told the jury: ‘No. That incident was three or four years before and something I had never talked about to anybody else.’
The international travel and tourism management graduate said she only knew that Mr Smith had come to harm when Hillier turned up at her house in York.
She was initially arrested as a witness but said she did not tell police everything she knew because she was ‘petrified’ of Hillier, who she claimed was verbally abusive, moody, unpredictable and suffering mental health issues.
Fulstow, from York, and Hillier, from Sheffield, deny murder. She also denies a single count of perverting the course of justice.
The trial was adjourned until next Wednesday.
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Rachel Fulstow is said to have persuaded her new boyfriend Michael Hillier to attack an old one-night stand, Liam Smith.