Love triangle at Milton Keynes store ends in woman being jailed for soliciting murder

Whitney Franks from Two Mile Ash went onto the dark web to find someone prepared to kill her colleague at Sports Direct after she discovered they were both having sex with their manager at the same time.

The 26-year-old offered £1,000 to anyone willing to kill 29-year-old Rutt Ruutna. But her foray into the dark web was discovered by a BBC investigative journalist who tipped off the police.

Franks sobbed in the dock today (Thursday) as a judge sent her to jail for more than a decade.

A court previously heard she was competing for the affections of her lover, city centre Sports Direct general manager James Prest.

Franks' messages, posted on a page claiming to be the infamous Sinaloa cartel, had been discovered by the BBC journalist in August 2020.

Prosecuting, Andrew Copeland said: "The defendant, together with a woman known as Rutt Ruttna, were working at a Sports Direct in Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes, and James Prest, who was the general manager, entered into a relationship with both of them simultaneously.

Franks became suspicious and said to Mr Prest: “I can give you the entire world James, if you can give me a chance. I think you could be the happiest you have ever been in your life.”

Mr Copeland said: "She had been using the dark web, as discovered by Carl Miller, an investigative journalist for the BBC.

"He found two conversations the defendant engaged with. One said 'I'm looking for the murder of a woman. I have £1,000 and I am willing to pay more. This woman has caused a lot of problems for myself and others.'

Mr Copeland added: "It looks like she downloaded on a number of occasions. We know from the bank statements that her Starling bank account indicated that £282.57 had been produced into a BitCoin wallet.

"The prosecution's position is that when the jury returned with a verdict of guilty in relation to solicitation of murder, this is akin to attempted murder.”

Franks had previously denied the charge, claiming she believed the website was a scam and she knew her victim was not in any danger. Despite this, she was convicted unanimously of soliciting murder in July this year.

Defending her, James McCrindell said: "The evidence at the trial was that the persons she was dealing with were scammers, so no harm was in fact ever going to come about. Ms Franks has done nothing to put the plan into action.”

Sentencing in Reading Crown Court, Judge Paul Dugdale said: "Whitney Franks is a woman of good character... I am going to treat her as a person of greater than good character.

"In the reality of sitting at home in lockdown accessing the dark web, Whitney Franks may have not really thought through what she was doing through naivety.”

Franks was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. She will have to serve two thirds of this before she is eligible for parole.