THE village of Helmshore is still coming to terms with the horror of what happened on January 14.

Seven months after Sadie Hartley was brutally murdered at Sunnybank Road, residents said they were either unable or unwilling to talk about what went on in the normally quiet street.

A ‘for sale’ sign stands in the driveway of the £500,000 house and there is a feeling that things won’t get back to ‘normal’ until after the dust has settled on yesterday’s verdict.

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Those who spoke paid tribute to ‘kind’ Miss Hartley.

Helmshore ward councillor Tony Haworth said: “Sadie really kept herself to herself. But because it was right in the heart of the village it affected everybody. You never think something like that is going to happen in a close-knit community.

“I don’t think people are going to associate Helmshore with this terrible murder. Once the verdict comes out it will be everywhere in terms of the media coverage. But after a few weeks it will calm down and it will go back to being a peaceful village.”

Bernard McManus, 68, who has been working as a gardener on Sunnybank Road for 10 years, said: “People have been shocked by it. They still can’t believe it happened. Up here everyone knows each other but they keep themselves to themselves. It’s a quiet and peaceful place.

“Nobody is talking about it. I think people just want to almost forget about it and try and move on.

“When I found out about it, it was a huge shock. She was a nice woman and would always stop and talk to me. She even made me a brew once.”

Dave Greenwood, 41, who lives in nearby Holcombe Road, said: “Everyone was talking about it at the time it happened but no-one’s really saying much any more.

“It could have happened anywhere. The world is a twisted place.

“Her killers weren’t from around here.

“It’s not like it was someone who drinks in the pub who everybody knows and you think, ‘How could he have gone on and murdered someone’.”