THE mother and daughter plotted together to hire a hitman,

THE mother and daughter plotted together to hire a hitman, apparently believing that if they stayed close and stuck to their story they would get away with murder.

But last night, after a Supreme Court trial full of twists and betrayal, Coralie Coulter and Helen Ryan were found guilty of the murder of Ryan's husband, Jeffrey.

Mr Ryan, a 48-year-old grazier, died after he was shot by the hitman in 2009 on the $1.1 million farm near Tamworth that he shared with his wife.


Ryan was reportedly ''hysterical'' when found her husband's body. But over the ensuing months the truth came out: that Ryan, Coulter and Ryan's sister Ganene Coulter conspired together to find and then pay a hitman $30,000 to kill Mr Ryan, then to cover up their crime.

In taped phone conversations played to the court, the three women referred to themselves as a ''triangle'' that would not be broken if they stuck together.

But as more evidence emerged, some of it obtained by an undercover policeman who infiltrated the triangle, the alliance crumbled completely, with the women turning on each other.

First it was Ganene Coulter, who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, conspiracy to murder, and gave evidence against her sister and mother in return for a 30 per cent discount on her sentence.

Then, when the trial began, Ryan claimed that her husband had turned violent, physically assaulting her and another family member. She said that she had paid $5000 to have her husband ''roughed up a bit'', and that her sister had obtained extra money from their mother to have him killed.

Ganene Coulter, she said, had hired the hitman out of jealousy and revenge at the breakdown of a relationship between Ganene and Mr Ryan 16 years before.

But the Crown Prosecutor Terry Thorpe told the court that Ryan was ''a woman scorned''.

The jury heard that her hsuband had been having an affair and wanted to leave the marriage. He had also changed his will to reduce his wife's share of the estate. It was jealousy and greed that drove Ryan to hire the hitman, Mr Thorpe said.

Coralie Coulter told the jury that Ryan had asked her for a loan in September 2009 because ''Jeff was in a lot of trouble''.

But the Crown said she was not ignorant of the plot, as she had claimed, and that she knew exactly what the money she gave her daughter was for, and when the act would be carried out.

The jury took just three hours to find both women guilty.

Mr Ryan's family gasped as the verdict was read out.