Dog saved woman from man hired by ex to kill her at Hitchin flat

A court heard Mukhtar Lail (left) hired Trefor Jones to kill his former partner, Tracy Devonshire, after she verbally abused him in the street

A dog saved its sleeping owner by growling at a man who had been hired to kill her by a former partner, a court has heard.

Tracy Devonshire was woken by Princess, a Staffordshire bull terrier, who had seen Trefor Jones standing over her at her flat in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

Ms Devonshire's ex-partner Mukhtar Lail had offered Jones £15,000 to kill her by injecting her with heroin.

Lail was jailed for life and Jones for eight years.

St Albans Crown Court heard Jones had been offered the money by Lail - a convicted drug dealer - to kill Ms Devonshire after she verbally abused him in the street in late 2021.

Prosecutor Nathan Rasiah KC said the plan was to give Ms Devonshire a fatal dose of heroin "to make it look like an accidental overdose".

Hertfordshire Police said Lail provided Jones with "detailed instructions on how to render the victim unconscious should she resist".

Lail gave Jones heroin and cocaine before the latter arrived at her flat in West Mill Lane.

Ms Devonshire, the court heard, did not take any heroin having been clean from the drug for two years.

However, the court was told the pair instead took cocaine before Ms Devonshire, who was also on sedatives, fell asleep on the sofa.

Ms Devonshire was woken by a growling Princess and found Jones standing over her.

Jones said: "I wanted to give your dog a kiss."

Lail and Jones were sentenced at St Albans Crown Court

The court heard Ms Devonshire called her brother and sister who, secretly at first, recorded a conversation with Jones in which he told them of the plot. When Jones left, the police were called.

Lail had also tried to persuade Ms Devonshire not to go to court by sending two men to her flat on 3 February 2022.

One of the two men - who arrived in surgical masks - claimed to be from the council and was there to give her a Covid test.

Bobby Dhunna was one of the men, and offered the victim money on Lail's behalf to drop the case, jurors heard.

'I cry all the time'

In a statement read to the court, the victim said: "I had to leave the place I'd called home all my life.

"I do not go out anymore and, if I must, I do not like to walk anywhere in case someone else comes to hurt me. I just pray that no-one else is following me.

"Sometimes I'm so scared it physically hurts and I cry all the time."

Judge Richard Foster told Lail: "It seems because of some chance meeting in a shopping centre in Christmas 2021, you met your former partner and decided to get her out of your life by getting her killed."

A jury had found Lail, of Meadowsweet Way, Stotfold, Bedfordshire, and Jones, of Edgbaston House, Sedgley Close, Southsea, guilty of conspiracy to murder between 27 December 2021 and 14 January last year.

Lail, who was ordered to serve a minimum term of eight years, was also convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Dhunna, 40, of Clarion Close, Offley, pleaded guilty to two charges of perverting the course of justice and possession of cannabis. He was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.