A wife who plotted with her secret ex-Marine lover to murder her husband and claim his £124,000 life insurance have been jailed for nearly 40 years.
Michelle Mills, 46, and Geraint Berry, 47, went as far as making a ‘kill kit’ to bump off unsuspecting Christopher Mills, Swansea Crown Court heard.
The pair discussed smothering him with a pillow, putting foxgloves in his salad or even lacing his gravy with anti-freeze.
They eventually settled on staging a fake armed raid to kill Mr Mills at the couple’s holiday home in Cenarth, Carmarthenshire, last September.
Then they faked a suicide note where her husband confessed to raping and beating his wife – knowing it was all a lie.
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Berry recruited Steven Thomas, also 47, to help carry out the attack on September 20 last year.
Mr Mills was attacked at a static caravan he shared with his wife by Berry and Thomas, who were masked and bearing imitation handguns and carrying gas masks, pliers and cable ties in a rucksack.
Although Mr Mills was badly injured, he managed to fight off his attackers and the pair fled, while his wife called 999 shortly after 11.30pm to report her husband had suffered a head injury and she did not know who the masked attackers were.
Jailing them today, judge Mr Justice Nicklin told Berry: ‘You devised the plan and led its execution.
‘You recruited Steven Thomas to assist you and while intoxicated, you equipped yourself with items that demonstrated your intention to kill Mr Mills and make it appear to be a suicide.
‘However incompetent the plan was and how unlikely it was to be achieved, your intention was to kill.
He told Mills: ‘The evidence strongly suggests that in the weeks leading up to the attack you cultivated and exploited Mr Berry’s animosity towards your husband and encouraged him to find a way to get rid of him – not as some fantasy but as reality.’
The senior judge jailed both Mills, of Llangennech, Llanelli, and Berry, of Clydach, Swansea, for 19 years each for conspiracy to murder.
Mills was also given an 18-month sentence to run concurrently for perverting the course of justice while Berry was given the same sentence for possession of an imitation firearm, a charge he previously admitted.
Thomas, of Blaengwynfi, in the Afan Valley, who the judge said had played a ‘subordinate role’ to Berry, was handed a 12-month sentence for possessing an imitation firearm, which he too had previously pleaded guilty to.
Former Help for Heroes charity worker Mr Mills said he couldn’t believe the ‘cold and calculated’ plan to murder him and believed he had a happy marriage.
The court heard ‘he was devastated when he was informed of the background to the incident and his wife had been having an affair with Mr Berry’ and ‘no longer feels secure in his own home’.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees KC said ‘jealous’ Berry became ‘more and more graphic’ in messages about killing Mr Mills after his lover was ‘stoking the fire’.
The court heard Mills told Berry her husband had tried to sexually touch her and was even ‘holding her against her will’ – but she denied it was an attempt to ‘provoke’ him.
Mr Rees said: ‘Michelle Mills and Geraint Berry had embarked on a secret sexual relationship which, on Geraint Berry’s part at least, had become increasingly intense.
‘Berry, encouraged on by Michelle Mills, had become increasingly occupied by hostile thoughts about Christopher Mills.’
The court heard Berry vowed to put Mr Mills ‘in the f***ing ground’ in messages while also saying he would ‘make it look like suicide’.
A fake suicide note shown to the jury was released by the CPS – addressed to ‘Dear Babs’ – Mr Mills’ nickname for his wife.
It read: ‘I’m really sorry for everything I have done to you ie laying my hands on you when I have been drinking a lot of alcohol every day…
‘I’m not happy with what I have done to you Babs ie beating you and raping you and I shouldn’t have done that too.
‘By the time you get this letter I will be gone because I can’t live with myself cause every time I look at you I can see I have hurt you.’
Mills claimed she believed the plan was ‘fantasy’ and only ever intended on divorcing her husband.
She said: ‘There was no plan to kill my husband. It was all part of a fantasy with Gaz.
‘We had no plan to kill Christopher. All we wanted to do was for me to be safe. To leave Christopher, get a divorce and go from there.
‘It was an escape from reality. It was not planned and it was not wanted.’
Mr Mills said he had ‘no idea’ his wife was having an affair and arrested following the masked attack when his wife made claims of domestic violence against him – which he denied.
He said: ‘It was a massive shock but the first time it came to my attention was the following day. I was arrested. At that instant I realised then that Michelle was involved. My heart sank.’
The court heard Mr Mills denied every being violent towards his wife – and said: ‘I have never laid a finger on her.’
He added: ‘I have done nothing to Michelle. As far as I was concerned we had a happy marriage. We had new passports and we were saving up to go on holiday.’
David Elias KC, defending Berry, said: ‘This was a plan that was very badly thought out.
‘There was no clear plan as to how the murder was to be carried out and the attack was very easily foiled.’
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