Three women have received suspended sentences for helping a man who had been accused of the rape and murder of a young showjumper.
Katie Simpson, 21, died in hospital six days after an incident at a house at Lettershandoney, Co Derry in August 2020.
The case was treated as suicide for months before police began investigating it as murder.
A man charged with Ms Simpson's rape and murder - Jonathan Creswell - was found dead at his home on the second day of his trial in April.
The 36-year-old had been denying the charges.
Before his murder trial began, the three women had pleaded guilty to a range of offences linked to Ms Simpson's death.
Today they were at Derry Crown Court for sentencing.
The prosecution accepted that Jill Robinson, Hayley Robb and Rose De Montmorency-Wright had not believed they were involved in covering up a murder, but did think they were assisting Creswell in covering up an assault.
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"All three defendants were operating in the belief, given to them by Creswell, that he had assaulted Katie prior to her alleged 'suicide'," the judge said.
"The alleged 'suicide' was entirely a fiction created by Creswell."
Robb, 30, of Weaver's Meadow in Banbridge, Co Down, admitted withholding information and perverting the course of justice by cleaning blood at Creswell's home and by washing his clothes.
Robinson, 42, from Blackfort Road in Omagh Co Tyrone, also admitted washing his clothes.
De Montmorency-Wright, 22, of Craigantlet Road, Newtownards, Co Down, admitted withholding information.
She had been living with Creswell and his then partner Christina Simpson - Katie Simpson's sister.
Robb got a two year sentence, suspended for two years.
Robinson received 18 months suspended and De Montmorency-Wright got eight months suspended.
The judge said he was convinced that but for the "agency and control" of Creswell none of them would have been in the dock.
Creswell was described in court as a "skilled and predatory abuser who regarded women under his influence as there to be used and abused for his own ends including his own sexual gratification".
The court heard that the actions of all three had helped to derail the initial police investigation.
The murder trial had been told that Creswell had previous "illicit relations" with Katie Simpson and attacked her after discovering she was in a new relationship.
Hayley Robb had been in a sexual relationship with Creswell for ten years.
She had initially denied wrongdoing but then admitted he had told her he had given the dead woman "a good hiding" the night before she was found injured.
Robb admitted she knew Creswell had taken a shower before going to the hospital and accepted that she had washed some of his clothes.
The prosecution alleged that she had failed to provide vital information which would have sent the initial police investigation in a different direction.
Robinson had also been in a relationship with Creswell for some years. She accepted that she had also washed some of his clothes, but said this was not unusual.
When asked why she had not gone to police after Creswell was arrested, she said she assumed that they would come to her.
The day that Ms Simpson was found injured Creswell met Robb and Robinson and is said to have told them "Youse think I did this".
He told them he was going to say Ms Simpson had been trampled by a horse to explain her injuries.
A defence barrister for De Montmorency-Wright said Creswell had exercised a large degree of control on a number of young women.
The PSNI handling of the initial investigation has caused controversy and led to several inquiries.
Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told a meeting of the Policing Board in May that officers had "committed misconduct" in the early stages of the inquiry.
He said he had received a 1,400 page report by the Police Ombudsman and that a disciplinary process was under way.
Policing Board member Nuala McAllister has raised questions about why police appeared to treat Ms Simpson's death as suicide for several months.
'Deep sense of injustice' for Simpson family
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Katie Simpson's mother Noeleen said that if she had known at the time what she knows now, Jonathan Creswell would never have been allowed to sit at Katie’s bedside as she fought for her life.
"It’s heartbreaking to know the suffering that monster put Katie through," she said.
"I can’t imagine how anyone could do such a thing. Katie would have fought back because she lived life."
She said not having had a trial due to Creswell’s death and the co-accused’s guilty pleas had left the family with a "deep sense of injustice".
She praised those who had persisted with the case at the outset because they knew how it was being presented "just didn’t look right".
She said she had spent months thinking about the different ways she could have saved her daughter.
All they were left with now was the memory of Katie’s love and laugh, she added.
PPS Senior Public Prosecutor Bronach McAuley, who conducted the case, said: "This was a particularly harrowing case, involving the violent death of a much-loved young woman with a promising future ahead of her. As Jonathan Creswell was found dead during his trial in April 2024, those proceedings can never run to conclusion.
"However, it was the prosecution’s case that Creswell was responsible for Ms Simpson’s death. It was also central to the prosecution’s case that he had covered up and lied about the circumstances of her death, to exculpate himself from blame," she said.
