Woman gets 18 years for plotting husband's murder

A WOMAN was jailed for 18 years at the Old Bailey yesterday for 'coldly and cynically' plotting her husband's murder.

Jean Daddow, 53, had used her husband Terry's money to hire an assassin to shoot him through the heart on the doorstep of their home at Northiam, East Sussex. She showed no emotion as she was led to the cells.

Robert Bell, whom she paid pounds 12,000 to carry out the shooting, was jailed for life for murder with a recommendation he serve at least 15 years. He was also sentenced concurrently to 18 years for conspiracy to murder.

Mrs Daddow's son from a previous marriage, Roger Blackman, was jailed for 18 years for his part in the murder plot.

Daddow, dubbed 'The Black Widow', plotted to murder her husband after managing to switch much of his fortune into a string of accounts under her control. She had also got him to change his pounds 300,000 will in her favour shortly before he died.

Mr Daddow, 52, a financial consultant formerly with Lloyds Bank, was killed shortly after the couple put an advertisement in a local paper attacking 'malicious gossip' about their marriage. It declared they were 'happily married'.

Daddow, a former hairdresser's assistant, and Blackman, 23, of Biddenden, Kent, had both been convicted at Hove Crown Court last month of conspiracy to murder. Bell, 33, a former soldier from Headcorn, Kent, was convicted of murder and conspiracy to murder.

Mr Daddow had met his wife while dealing with the theft of her credit cards. After they married she started moving cash into her control.

David Penry Davey QC, for Daddow, said she had suffered physically and mentally during their two-year marriage. She had slipped LSD into his food and drink previously, causing him to hallucinate and suffer from depression.

Stephen Miller QC, for Bell, said he had been 'drawn into this highly-charged family to do something totally alien to him'.

Mr Justice Hidden, sentencing, told the three conspirators: 'You put your heads together to conceive and carry out a killing which was cold-blooded and as callous as can be imagined.'