Her husband, however, has written to the judge presiding over her case at the Old Bailey asking for a light sentence. Zoe Kenealy was alleged to have approached her neighbour with £3,000 as payment to hire a hit man. Prosecutors have said that Kenealy was after the £33,000 life insurance payout that would have come as a result of Tim Kenealy’s death.

She was arrested in 2007 but released on bail, only to return back home. In an interview with The Sunday Mirror, her husband explained how the incident actually brought the couple closer together: "I told her I wouldn't give up on her, and in those months waiting for the police action we became closer than we had been for years".