A WOMAN who helped the two killers of Aaron Pill try and hide their crime has been sentenced to 21 months in prison despite pleading with the judge that she was now 'truly sorry' for what she had done
Georgia Potter, aged 51, of Meadowbank, Mylor Bridge, had been found guilty at trial earlier this year of helping murderers Liam Bastow and Kane Coggin after they had stabbed Mr Pill to death in Falmouth on May 4, 2020.
During her trial, Potter, who is the mother of Kane Coggin, had denied having anything to do with assisting the two offenders or having any knowledge of what had happened.
But appearing before Judge Robert Linford at Truro Crown Court for sentencing today she changed her tune and apologised in a letter to him for the distress that she had caused.
But in an impact statement from Mr Pill's mother Caroline Johnson read out in the court by prosecution she said that that she could never forgive Potter for putting her family through the stress of a trial after denying culpability.
"In the statement she expresses how she feels about Miss Potter, for her role," said the prosecution. "Her failure to take any responsibility for her role and lack of any remorse at any point and how difficult she finds it to accept that Miss Potter's life has to date appeared to continue as normal whereas hers has clearly not with the loss of her son."
In her letter to the judge, read out by her defence barrister, Potter said she wanted to say how truly sorry she was to the victim's family.
"I cannot even start to comprehend how this has affected their lives and how it will continue to do so for many years," she said. "It is undoubtedly the hardest letter I have ever written. If I could change the events of that evening I would do so in a heartbeat.
"As a mother and a carer this is most definitely not the sort of situation I would have ever thought I would have found myself in. The ripple effects from that evening has changed so many lives around us all."
But while Judge Linford "just about" accepted that Potter's remorse was genuine he said he had no choice but to send her to prison because of the enormity of the crime that she had committed.
"You took them back to the scene to collect bloody clothing which was probably destroyed, made a false statement to the police when you knew your son was suspected of killing Aaron Pill," he said.
"I have no doubt that a mother's instinct took over when you found out what they'd done but what you should have done was to encourage the two men to give themselves up and encourage them to confess what they'd done."
On Tuesday Brea Coggin, the girlfriend of Bastow and the daughter of Potter, was sentenced for her part in assisting an offender after pleading guilty at the start of her trial.
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