Hayley Weatherall (pictured) plotted to kill cancer stricken Ray Weatherall by shooting, drowning and even blowing him up
A cheating wife was today jailed for life alongside her lover and his transgender daughter for plotting to murder her terminally ill husband.
Hayley Weatherall, 32, Glenn Pollard, 49, and his only child Heather tried to kill cancer stricken Ray Weatherall, 53, by shooting, drowning and even blowing him up.
Her loving husband only had months to live when Heather Pollard – who goes by the name ‘Arthur’ – shot him in the face like a ‘sniper’ after a string of failed attempts on his life.
They included a swimming pool heater explosion which left him with second degree burns, drowning him while fishing and poisoning him with insulin and sleeping tablets.
Mr Weatherall, of Ash, near Canterbury, remained ignorant that his wife and his best friend of 20 years were trying to kill him after they planned a new life together.
Jailing the trio today judge Adele Williams branded then ‘cold and calculated’ with ‘chilling cruelty’ and said Mrs Weatherall was ‘impatient’ for her husband to die.
At their trial, Maidstone Crown Court was told the non-fatal shooting triggered a long and intricate Kent Police investigation, which uncovered a string of other unsuccessful attempts on the man’s life, planned before and after the shooting.
Their schemes began unravelling in January after Ray’s niece Emma Worsfold tipped off police that they were trying to kill Ray, after she learned of the affair.
Investigating officer PC Paul Wilson said: ‘This has been a very complex case and extremely difficult for the victim who is quite frankly lucky to be alive.
Mr Weatherall is pictured arriving at court today where his wife, her lover and her lover’s daughter were jailed for life for plotting to murder him
A handout photo of a seized firearm that experts believe could have been used in the shooting of Mr Weatherall
An X-ray of Mr Weatherall’s jaw, with a bullet visible to the top right where he was shot in the face
‘He’s had to come to terms with the fact that three people close to him who he cared about were so intent on hurting him.
‘They’ve also put him through further distress with a long and upsetting trial that has revealed all the despicable actions of these three individuals..’
Kent Police raided their homes and quickly recovered the bolt-action rifle that was used to shoot him.
Phones and electrical devices were analysed and hundreds of messages were discovered between Glenn and Heather Pollard, including about how they planned to kill his love rival.
Glenn Pollard, left, and his daughter Heather (right) who now goes by the name Arthur, were both jailed for life today
The jury was also told about other events that had threatened the victim’s life between the summer of 2017 and the spring of 2018, which was just chalked up to accidents.
Mr Weatherall was blown up when his burner exploded, was set up to be drowned during a fishing trip with Pollard, and an incidence of suspected poisoning.
PC Wilson added: ‘There is no doubt that Glenn, Heather and Hayley have taken great steps to end this man’s life and we can only be thankful they weren’t successful.
‘We hope the victim will now be able to move on with his life where he’ll no longer be put in harm’s way.
‘We also hope our investigation and the subsequent conviction has given him and others the confidence that Kent Police will leave no stone un-turned in order to seek justice.’
Weatherall, from Ash near Canterbury, and Glenn and Heather Pollard, of West Stourmouth, Canterbury, were convicted last week and sentenced today.
Glenn Pollard got life with a minimum of 17 years while the other two were jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years.
Heather Pollard was seen laughing in the dock with her father before the sentence was handed down.
Jurors heard treacherous Pollard had a gun license and ‘brainwashed’ his daughter – who was Mr Weatherall’s great-niece – to fire the ‘sniper’ shot last November.
He was shot in the face at Sandwich Marina in Kent but survived when the bullet hit his right cheekbone.
Ray had been diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2015 and the following year was given only 18 months to live on to of daily insulin injections for his diabetes.
Mr Weatherall pictured at an earlier hearing outside Maidstone Crown Court in Kent
Ray and Glenn Pollard had been friends for more than 20 years and went shooting together.
There was a ‘command’ by Glenn Pollard to Weatherall to poison him with an insulin overdose and an aborted plan to push him overboard during a fishing trip on a boat they co-owned.
The shooting happened at the marina on Wednesday, November 29 when Ray was working at a boatyard by the River Stour with his son Sam and daughter Jade, cutting branches from a tree.
Weatherall was also some distance from the marina but was in regular contact with Glenn Pollard during the day.
The daughter sent a text message to her father on November 20 when he was working with Mr Weatherall felling trees in Rainham.
It said: ‘Not sure I can get through all brambles, will try another route, but maybe think of another option xxx’
They also had a text conversation about how to cause sepsis and injecting someone with insulin after giving them knock out pills.
Heather Pollard’s phone also showed internet searches for methods on how to kill someone.
They included ‘Techniques of silent killing’, ‘Creative ways to kill someone’, ‘Insulin shock’, ‘Sepsis’, ‘Cyanide poisoning’ and ‘How to kill someone via a wound’.
The judge almost handed out indeterminate sentences to the trio of plotters because there were so many attempts to kill Mr Weatherall.
Judge Adele Williams told Maidstone Crown Court she was considering an indeterminate sentence because of ‘the course of conduct involved and multiple attempts to murder’.
In response to Isabella Forshall, QC for Weatherall, submitting such a sentence was inappropriate, the judge said: ‘I think you completely misunderstand the gravity of the crime that has been committed.’
Mr Weatherall was at Sandwich Marina (pictured) when he was shot in the face by a ‘sniper’, Maidstone Crown Court was told
The judge said Weatherall and Glenn Pollard pursued their affair with intensity, sending each other explicit texts and exchanging sexual photos.
Passing sentence, Judge Adele Williams said: ‘This was cruelty of a high degree – cold, calculated and chilling cruelty.
‘You conspired to murder a man because he stood in your way.
‘That man was your husband, Hayley Weatherall, your best friend of over 20 years Glenn Pollard and your Uncle Ray, your father’s best friend and a man you had known all your life, Heather Pollard.
‘Each of you plotted and planned to kill him with determination and persistence.’
Pollard, she said, decided the only way he and Weatherall could be together was for her husband to be killed.
‘You, Hayley Weatherall, saw your future with Glenn Pollard. You were impatient for your husband to die, telling a relative in July 2017: ‘I can’t wait for him to die.’
‘You, Heather Pollard, were so desperate for your father’s approval you joined this conspiracy with enthusiasm. You were prepared to kill for him.’
There were three ‘determined and sophisticated’ attempts to kill the victim – an occasion when Heather Pollard went to shoot him in Rainham, when he was actually shot and an attempt to poison him by giving the diabetic an insulin overdose, and the explosion.
While cuckolded Ray was recovering in hospital after the shooting, brazen Weatherall texted her lover and said ‘They didn’t do a very good job, he’s still alive.’
Attempts on Ray’s life were passed off as accidents, unfortunate events or harmless coincidences.
It was only when he was shot in the face – the bullet passing through his right cheek and out of the left cheek – in November last year that the police became involved.
Even at the point of the shooting the trail remained cold until the affair was revealed in January this year.
Hayley and Raymond Weatherall married in December 2015. He had been diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2015 and the following year was given only 18 months to live.
He is also diabetic and needed daily insulin injections.