Victoria Breeden guilty of trying to get ex-husband murdered

A woman has been found guilty of trying to persuade three men to murder her ex-husband after losing custody of a child.

Victoria Breeden, 39, sought "revenge" on former partner Rob Parkes and in a secret recording she was heard asking the cost of making someone "disappear".

None of the men carried out her plan and she denied all charges.

Breeden, of Cambridgeshire, was found guilty of three counts of soliciting murder and cleared of another.

Christopher Paxton QC, prosecuting, told her eight-day trial at Chelmsford Crown Court that she and Mr Parkes had met at university and married in 2004, but separated four years later.

Mr Parkes was granted custody of a child in 2014 and Mr Paxton said: "It's this, we say, which drove the defendant in whole or in part to seek retribution against Mr Parkes."

Breeden, of Black Horse Drove near Littleport, tried to persuade three different men to murder Mr Parkes, beginning in 2014 when she asked a man to "do her a favour and sort out her ex-husband".

After the man declined, the defendant asked him if he "knew people back in Scotland who were real nutters" and said she could "get together £5,000".

Her trial heard Breeden also asked a former boyfriend, Graham Wall, "you must know someone who can help me get rid of him".

The court also heard a conversation, secretly recorded by Mr Wall, in which she asked a man "how easy is it to get in contact with someone who can make someone disappear?".

Mr Wall said he suspected Breeden was being unfaithful and had left a device on the record setting in a cupboard under the stairs at her home before he went to work.

She was cleared of soliciting another former boyfriend, Daniel Proctor, to murder Mr Parkes between 1 November 2015 and 1 June 2016.

Breeden will be sentenced on 15 May at the Old Bailey.