Psychic spirit sex murder accomplice jailed

A woman who helped her de facto husband after he murdered her best friend will spend at least 18 months in jail.

Angela Wells, 29, had pleaded guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Malissa Mayfield in June 2006.

Wells, from Blacktown in Sydney's west, admitted she drove her de facto husband David Maxwell Shepherd to and from her friend Ms Mayfield's house on the night she was attacked by Shepherd, and made numerous phone calls to her on that night.

She was the godmother to Ms Mayfield's youngest daughter.

Ms Mayfield met Shepherd through Wells and all three bonded over an interest in the occult.

Shepherd, 38, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for strangling Ms Mayfield in her south-western Sydney home while her two daughters were sleeping only metres away.

Ms Mayfield died in hospital four days later.

Shepherd told Ms Mayfield he had psychic powers and could remove her evil spirits by having sex with her.

Justice Michael Grove said in his judgment today that Wells had been an unreliable witness until Shepherd attacked her on June 28, 2006, 13 days after his attack on Ms Mayfield.

"I am satisfied that you assisted him because you believed initially that you could help him 'get away with it'," the judge said.

He sentenced Wells to three years in jail with a non-parole period of 18 months.

She will be eligible for parole on May 9, 2009, including time served.

After the judgment, Donna May, Ms Mayfield's mother, yelled her displeasure at the sentence to the court.

"We know how long my daughter has been sentenced for," she said.

AAP