FOR eight days Andrea Louise Rix played the adoring wife, keeping a vigil by the hospital bed of her husband, who had been shot three times after being ambushed by a stranger at their western NSW property on May 1, 2007.

But as she hugged and kissed Joe Rix, the then 33-year-old harboured a dark secret.

She knew exactly who had tried to kill her husband.

She had provided the gun.

Rix had been having an affair with Terence Joseph Sealy since December 2006, after they met at a function while she was working for Telstra.

Mr Rix had become increasingly suspicious of his wife's behaviour after hearing her on the phone with Sealy and discovering a text message on her mobile phone from him using the name "Turk".

Rix did not look at Mr Rix as she was sentenced in the Sydney District Court for shooting Mr Rix with the intention of murdering him.

Mr Rix wept as details of his injuries and the emotional and psychological distress caused by his wife's betrayal were heard by the court.

Judge Robyn Tupman accepted evidence that Rix had been assaulted by her husband during the course of their marriage and this was partly due to stress from financial pressures on the couple, which had been exacerbated by the drought.

"I stress that none of this material provides any defence nor any excuse for what subsequently happened to Mr Rix," Judge Tupman said.

Sealy shot Mr Rix in the stomach, right hand, back and buttocks at the couple's farm, close to Bogan Gate, near Parkes, with Mr Rix's own 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun, which had been provided by his wife.

Judge Tupman said both Rix and Sealy, who is serving a minimum of five years and six months in jail for his part, were equally involved in the crime, an "evolving plan … fuelled by personal feelings, fear and lack of judgment".

But the plan came undone when police intercepted phone calls between Rix and Sealy in which she advised him how to dispose of the gun and any other evidence.

Rix was sentenced to a maximum of 12 years in jail, with a minimum of eight years, after Judge Tupman took into account her clean criminal record and psychological illness - a result of her upbringing in an abusive home.

Outside court, Mr Rix strongly denied he had ever assaulted his wife.

"I had thought that I would have been with Andrea for the rest of my life - she was my mate for life," he said.

Mr Rix said he was "emotionally destroyed" when he found out that his wife had been involved in the shooting.