Michelle Mills sentencing: ‘Chilling reality’ of cheating wife’s plot to murder husband exposed in court
The woman who planned to kill her husband to start a new life with her secret lover was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
46-year-old Michelle Mills and her 47-year-old boyfriend Geraint Berry planned to kill Christopher Mills to continue their relationship.
Berry also recruited 47-year-old Steven Thomas to help carry out the attack.
Mr Mills was attacked by Berry and Thomas on September 20, 2024, in a static caravan he shared with his wife.
The two attackers were masked, carrying imitation handguns and carrying gas masks, pliers and cable ties in their backpacks.
Mr Mills was seriously injured but managed to fight off his attackers and the pair escaped.
Meanwhile, his wife called 999 and reported that her husband was injured in the head and that he did not know who the masked attackers were.
At Swansea Crown Court on Friday, Mr Justice Nicklin KC sentenced Mills, of Llanelli, Llangennech, and Berry, of Clydach, Swansea, to 19 years each for conspiracy to murder.
Mills was also sentenced to 18 months in prison, to be run concurrently, for perverting the course of justice. Berry was given the same sentence for possession of an imitation firearm, as he had previously admitted.
The judge said Thomas, of Blaengwynfi in the Afan Valley, played a “secondary role” to Berry.
He was also sentenced to 12 months in prison for possession of an imitation firearm, to which he had previously pleaded guilty.
Sentencing Berry, the judge said: “You and Michelle Mills planned to kill Christopher Mills.
“You devised the plan and led its execution. You recruited Steven Thomas to assist you and, while intoxicated, rigged yourself with items that indicated an intent to kill Mr Mills and made it look like a suicide.
“No matter how inept the plan was and no matter how unlikely it was to be carried out, your intention was to kill.”
He said the text messages between Berry and Mills, which Mills deleted but Berry did not, were the “chilling reality” of the plan that was “thwarted by the extraordinary bravery and bravery of Mr. Mills in fighting against you and your accomplice.”
Addressing Mills, the judge said he deleted the text messages because he knew “very well” they were criminal.
He said: “Geraint Berry may have been largely responsible for the development of the method, but you encouraged him to carry out the plan.
“The evidence strongly suggests that in the weeks leading up to the incident you developed and exploited Geraint Berry’s hostility towards your husband and encouraged him to find a way to get rid of your husband, not in fantasy but in reality.”
