Times caption: Michael Lawson was ambushed by Sarah Bramley’s former boyfriend after she sent him a picture of her performing a sex act on him

A piece in today’s Times, emphases ours:

A woman who “revelled in the drama” of playing her two lovers off against one another has been jailed after her sexual taunts ended in murder.

In July last year Sarah Bramley, 29, sent a photograph of herself performing a sex act on Michael Lawson to David Saunders, her former partner, which “tipped him over the edge”.

She followed the picture up with a message to Saunders, about Mr Lawson, which said: “Feel free to smack the c***.”

The “kind and mild-mannered” Mr Lawson, 34, had been ambushed by Saunders who stabbed him to death as he walked home from Bramley’s house after she had slapped his face and ordered him to leave.

As she played the two men off against each other during a drinking session into the early hours, her two sons were asleep in their beds at her home in Darlington, County Durham.

Bramley, a former law student, admitted inciting an assault, but it was accepted that she could not have foreseen that goading of Saunders would lead to Mr Lawson’s murder. Today she was sentenced to four months in prison.

Nick Dry, for the prosecution, told Teesside crown court that Bramley and Saunders had had a tempestuous relationship. A non-molestation order was granted to keep him away from Bramley who claimed to be frightened of him, yet she continued to have a sexual relationship with him.

“These events are the culmination of a love rivalry with Sarah Bramley at its heart,” Mr Dry said. “Text messages between the two reveal a love hate relationship with sexually explicit messages of love mixed with highly offensive personal abuse.”

He told the court that she “appeared to revel in the drama and attention of the situation”.

Just after Saunders carried out the murder she sent him a message saying: “You are f***ed, what a mess.”

Before the killing Bramley mocked Saunders in messages telling him that Mr Lawson was “twice his size”. Saunders replied by calling her a “sket and a slut”. Later she sent an image of herself performing a sex act on Mr Lawson.

The court was told that Bramley, who is now pregnant with her third child, is filled with remorse about the effect of her behaviour on Mr Lawson’s family. However, they spoke angrily after her sentencing because she is likely to serve half of her jail time.

Anne Satterthwaite, 61, Mr Lawson’s mother, said that she “should have gone to jail for much longer. She knew exactly what she was doing that night and the end result was that Michael died.”

Ray Scraife, Mr Lawson’s uncle, added: “She knew she was winding up a violent man and at the very least she knew that Mike was going to get a good hiding.”

Bramley had initially denied encouraging or assisting the commission of one or more offences, those being common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm. If she had been convicted of that charge she could have faced life in prison. [J4MB: Why wasn’t she charged with any of those crimes? As always, because vagina.]

At a previous hearing the Crown Prosecution Service accepted that despite knowing that Saunders was violent and despite the fact that she had seen him carry a knife at a music festival, she could not have foreseen the murder. {J4MB: The CPS bending over backwards to make a woman less accountable than she should have been. Same old, same old.]

In December last year, as he sentenced Saunders, a car dealer, Judge Stephen Ashurst said that Bramley’s action in sending him a picture of herself performing oral sex on Mr Lawson “tipped him over the edge”.

Saunders admitted murder but sought to lower the minimum term he must serve by claiming that he had not carried the murder weapon to the scene and had not intended to kill Mr Lawson. After a two-day trial of issue without a jury at Teesside crown court, the judge found against him and jailed him for life with a minimum term of 22 and a half years.

As he sentenced Bramley, the judge said it was worrying that she sent the messages while her two young sons were in the house and that she should be ashamed. Robert Newcombe, representing Bramley, said that she was “full of remorse”.

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