A blonde vaginal surgeon who hired a darknet hitman to kill her ex in a row over custody of their six-year-old daughter has been jailed for more than five years.

Accused Dr Lotta N. 49, found on social media under the name of Dr Lotta von Cramon, specialised in intimate cosmetic surgery for women at her practice in Hamburg, northern Germany.

But when her former husband threatened to take full custody of their daughter she hired a self-styled killer on the darknet for USD 15,000 (GBP 12,000) in Bitcoin.

Cramon and her current husband Thomas Nowak found the killer, paid him the contact fee and passed on her ex’s details, Hamburg Regional Court heard.

Cramon – jailed for five years and six months – and Nowak were both found guilty of attempted murder.

Nowak was imprisoned for five years and three months, according to local media.

The pair were caught when FBI experts monitoring darknet transactions discovered the plot and contacted police in Germany.

Passing sentence the female judge described the story as an “extraordinary case.”

She added: “They have fallen from an enormous height.”

The bizarre plot unravelled last August while Cramon was in court giving evidence that her ex had attacked and threatened her.

But the hearing was interrupted when police entered the court to arrest her and Nowak for her first husband’s attempted murder.

Police also revealed that they were giving police protection to the ex because of the assassination bid.

A former nanny to Cramon’s daughter said the medic was a perfectionist and claimed she had persuaded the girl to lie during divorce proceedings.