A cheating wife and her secret ex-Royal Marine lover were today jailed for 19 years each for plotting to murder her husband.
Michelle Mills, 46, and lover Geraint Berry, 47, hatched a grisly plan to kill unsuspecting Christopher Mills so they could claim his life insurance.
She had been romantically involved with Berry for three months and the coupled hoped killing her husband would allow them to start a new life together.
Mills and Berry discussed smothering him with a pillow, putting foxgloves in his salad or even putting anti-freeze in his gravy as part of 2,301 messages sent between them.
Eventually, they put together a ‘kill kit’ of gas masks, cable ties, balaclavas and guns and decided to commit the murder during a fake armed raid on the couple’s holiday caravan in Cenarth, Carmarthenshire.
They even faked a suicide note in which her husband confessed to raping and beating his wife – knowing it was all a lie.
Berry recruited Steven Thomas, also 47, to help carry out the attack on September 20 last year.
Mr Mills was ambushed at the static caravan by Berry and Thomas, who were masked and armed with the ‘kill kit’.
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.
The bungled murder plot plan was carried out just weeks after a life insurance policy from Help For Heroes came into effect for former soldier Mr Mills, making his wife the 100 per cent beneficiary of the £124,000 payout.
Mr Mills believed he was in a happy marriage and was stunned to find out his wife had been planning to murder him.
At Swansea Crown Court today, Mr Justice Nicklin KC 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, to which he too had previously pleaded guilty.
Sentencing the pair, Judge Mr Justice Nicklin KC told Mills: ‘Together with Geraint Berry you planned to kill Christopher Mills.
‘Geraint Berry may have been largely responsible for devising the method of killing your husband but you had encouraged him to execute that plan.
‘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.
‘From his text messages to you, you knew the chilling truth that Geraint Berry was on his way to Cenarth that night.
‘After the plan failed, the speed with which you set about destroying the evidence of the messages exchanged shows you knew very well that they incriminate you.’
The judge told Berry that it was clear from the items he was carrying on the night of the bungled murder plot that he intended to kill Mr Mills ‘probably by gassing him’ and to make it appear to be suicide.
‘However incompetent that plan was in its formulation and execution, and however unlikely it was to be achieved your intention was to kill,’ the judge continued.
‘The steps you took in preparation to accomplish that aim were no fantasy. They were a chilling reality.
‘Your plan was thwarted by the remarkable fortitude and courage of Mr Mills who fought you and your accomplice off.’
Former Help for Heroes charity worker Mr Mills said he could not believe the ‘cold and calculated’ plan to murder him and believed his relationship was happy.
Prosecutor Nicholas Gedge said: ‘He was devastated when he was informed of the background to the incident and his wife had been having an affair with Mr Berry.
‘He no longer feels secure in his own home and has had the locks changed and CCTV installed.’
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.
The court heard wife Mills texted her lover Berry following the attack to tell him to get away from the scene and added: ‘Delete all communications on both phones’.
Berry and Thomas fled the scene after being fought off by 20-stone Mr Mills inside the caravan.
Berry and Thomas gave themselves up after hiding in the bushes – and officers found the gasmasks with filter canisters, cable ties, pliers, cloths and a telescopic gun sight in their ruscksacks.
Bodyworn footage from officers at the scene showed the men being handcuffed after being spotted by a police helicopter before the murder kit was unpacked.
A fake suicide note purporting to be from Mr Mills said: ‘I’m really sorry for everything I have done to you i.e. 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 i.e. beating you and raping you and I shouldn’t have done that to.
‘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.’
A sealed white envelope containing the forged suicide note was found in Berry’s pocket with his lover’s DNA on the seal.
Mills claimed she believed the plan was ‘fantasy’ and only ever intended on divorcing her husband.
She said: ‘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 denied ever being violent towards his wife.
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.’
