Woman jailed for goading ex-partner with explicit photo of new boyfriend he then killed

Judge told Sarah Bramley her text messages had ‘very important bearing’ on killer’s actions

A woman who sent an intimate photo to her ex-boyfriend who then murdered the man pictured in the image in a fit of jealousy has been jailed for four months.

Sarah Bramley, 29, pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence over the killing.

Last year Bramley sent former partner David Saunders, 33, a picture of her performing a sex act on new lover Michael Lawson, 34.

In the early hours of 1 July 2017, shortly after receiving the text and photo, Saunders stabbed father-of-one Lawson through the heart.

Bramley admitted the offence on the basis she sent the photo believing her ex-partner would then carry out a “common assault”, rather than commit murder.

The prosecution alleged she had texted Saunders shortly after ordering Lawson to leave her house: “He is outside the house, feel free to smack the c***.”

Bramley is a mother of two young sons and is expecting a baby in February, the court heard on Monday.

Judge Stephen Ashurst said: “Although you did not contemplate that Saunders would go on to kill Michael Lawson, I take the view it is hard to conceive a more serious case of encouraging the commission of a common assault.”

Bramley did not react as she left the dock.

When he sentenced Saunders at the same court in December, Judge Ashurst said Bramley’s text messages and sex-act photo had “a very important bearing” on the killer’s actions.

As the judge sent Saunders to jail, he told him: “Jealousy was very much at the heart of your behaviour.

“Ultimately a life was needlessly lost because of a loss of control.”

Additional reporting by Press Association