Couples who kill... the partners together in love and murder

The brutal murder of Liam Smith, plotted by Rachel Fulstow and executed by her boyfriend Michael Hillier, made the pair among Britain's most notorious couples.

The pair, jailed for life last week, join the grim list of partners who brought out the very worst in each other, with innocent victims paying the price.

Fuelled by a sense of vengeance, cruelty, or twisted gratification, their cases each horrified the courts. Here, the M.E.N looks at the appalling cases of the couples who killed.

Michael Hillier and Rachel Fulstow plotted the brutal murder of a much loved dad. Liam Smith had been on a date with Fulstow before she met Hillier, after they met through the Tinder dating app.

Fulstow later claimed there had been ‘non-consensual’ sexual activity between them in a hotel room during the date. She didn't go to the police and said she didn’t regard it as ‘rape’.

The pair did not carry on their relationship following the first date, and a few months later Fulstow and Hillier began dating after meeting on the Hinge dating app. As they became closer, Fulstow told Hillier of the alleged incident with Liam Smith.

Hillier was angered and the pair hatched a plan to get revenge, plotting together for months. On November 24 last year, Hillier arrived at Mr Smith's home in Wigan.

Just before 7pm he shot Mr Smith in the face and then threw acid over him. A few days later, the couple went on holiday to Jamaica, thinking they'd got away with murder.

But after police managed to tie Hillier to the getaway car they'd seen on CCTV footage, he was charged. Fulstow was initially treated as a witness but later became a suspect after incriminating evidence emerged.

After a trial, Hillier, 39, of Ecclesall Road, Sheffield, was found