DRAMA queen Jenny Cupit - who murdered a much-loved deputy headmistress in a fit of jealousy and lust - is beginning a life behind bars.

The twisted theatre lover, who made an 11th hour confession to the killing of love rival Kathryn Linaker, was condemned as a "serial liar" by a judge at the end of a five-day trial at Chester Crown Court.

Cupit was involved in a steamy 16-month affair with Mrs Linaker's husband Chris, involving three-in-a-bed sex with Mr Linaker's brother-in-law Neil Alcock and Cupit's husband Nick.

The Linakers and Cupits were all members of Warrington's Centenary Operatic and Dramatic Society, as were Neil Alcock and his wife Sally.

Before admitting her guilt, amateur actress Cupit spun a web of lies, first blaming a mystery intruder for the killing. Then she suggested Mrs Linaker had attacked her with a knife in a confrontation over her husband's affair.

Not alerting emergency services until around an hour after her victim's death, Cupit even performed a theatrical "faint" just hours after the killing, which failed to impress watching paramedics.

Cupit, aged 24, formerly of Borrowdale Avenue, Orford, repeatedly denied stabbing and bludgeoning 33-year-old mother-of-two Mrs Linaker to death in front of her four-month old daughter Holly at her home in Tannery Lane, Penketh.

Yet she admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

But on Tuesday the former hairdresser - who it was said suffered from anxiety, depression and bulimia - had a dramatic change of face and changed her plea to guilty.

Cupit used a kitchen knife, bought on the day of the killing for the purpose, a carving knife and heavy blue vase during the fatal attack.

Sentencing the sobbing mother-of-two to life imprisonment, trial judge Mr Justice Sachs told her: "You are a serial liar - your problems are no worse than hundreds of your fellow human beings.

"You killed a good woman out of lust for her husband and out of jealousy for her."

The judge continued: "Her killing was absolutely pre-meditated and was perpetrated in front of her four-month old daughter.

"You have left Kathryn Linaker's children without a mother."

But defence counsel Adrian Fulford, who stressed Cupit felt "great remorse" for her actions and accepted she had lied repeatedly about the killing, said Chris Linaker "bore a heavy responsibility" for his wife's murder.

Mr Fulford claimed the computer consultant "took great risks in the explicit sexual contact between them" taking the chance that either of their partners could discover them.

The court heard Cupit and Mr Linaker slept together around once a week at locations including their homes, Delamere Forest and a Greater Manchester motel.

Mr Fulford said Cupit made repeated attempts to break off their relationship but Mr Linaker had maintained the "dangerous" relationship with a "vulnerable, young woman".

Remaining stony-faced while Cupit was sentenced, Chris Linaker refused to comment as he left court.

Later Kathryn's parents Sheila and Kenneth Pearson, and twin sister Fiona Gent, paid an emotional tribute to the teacher, who worked at St James's CE Primary, Haydock and was a children's author.

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