A woman who tried to pay a hitman to kill a Sports Direct love rival has been jailed for 12 years.

Whitney Franks, 27, of Two Mile Ash, Milton Keynes, paid nearly £300-worth of Bitcoin over the dark web to arrange the murder of Rutt Ruttna, a colleague of her lover James Prest.

Franks met Prest at Sports Direct in 2014 and she entered into a romantic relationship with the Midusmmer Place store’s general manager in 2015.

When Franks left the store in 2017, Prest entered into a simultaneous relationship with their Sports Direct colleague Ruttna, prompting the jealous Franks to try and arrange his unlawful killing over the internet two years later. The whole time, Prest was also in a third relationship with the mother of his two children.

Following a trial in July this year, Franks was found guilty of soliciting the murder of Rutt Ruttna by a unanimous jury.

She was sentenced today (Thursday) at Reading Crown Court to 12 years in prison. She will serve eight years before she can be released on licence.

READ MORE: Woman paid for murder of Sports Direct love rival as she was 'intrigued' by 'bizarre' dark web, court hears

Prosecutor Andrew Copeland said: “This is akin to attempted murder.

“It is more than preparatory, seeking out a hitman, making a deposit. It’s premeditated.

During the trial, the court heard how Franks accessed the dark web in August 2020 and made a murder submission about Ruttna, posting details of her love rival’s social media profile and sharing her address.

She stated that she was “very serious” about her request and made a payment of £282-worth of bitcoin to indicate her proof of funds.

During her trial, Franks’ defence was that she always believed the website she was using was a scam, and that she was only making the murder enquiry as the dark web “intrigued” her.

James McCrindell, defending, said: “She believed these were scammers or fraudsters. There were no plans developed at all as a result of the solicitation to murder.

“She has spoken to another about the issue of arranging a murder and that’s a different crime to herself actually planning a murder.”

He added that her attempts to get the bitcoin money back two days after sending it indicated that she no longer wanted the murder to take place.

Sentencing Franks, Judge Paul Dugdale said: “It’s important to pause for a moment and just see the fact that she started working at Sports Direct when she was 16, she was 18 when she met James Prest and just 20 when was started a relationship with James Prest. She was very young, and she was somewhat impressionable.

“But she tried to hire someone to kill Rutt Ruttna, she gives that organisation Rutt Ruttna’s name, her address, her social media details. Everything they needed to find her.

“She said right at the start ‘I am looking to hire for the murder of a woman’. When she did this it was Whitney Frank’s intention that the person she contacted on the dark web would kill Rutt Ruttna.”