Michelle Mills, 46, and Geraint Berry, 47, have been each jailed for 19 years for conspiring to murder Christopher Mills so they could continue their affair. Berry, an ex-marine, recruited Steven Thomas, 47, to help carry out the attack on 20 September last year.
The attack took place at a static caravan in Cenarth, Carmarthenshire, shared by Mr and Mrs Mills. Berry and Thomas, wearing masks and carrying imitation handguns, gas masks, pliers and cable ties, attacked Christopher Mills. He was badly injured but fought off his attackers, and the pair fled. Michelle Mills called 999 shortly after 11.30pm, reporting her husband had a head injury but that she did not know who the masked attackers were.
At Swansea crown court, Mr Justice Nicklin KC sentenced Michelle Mills, of Llangennech, Llanelli, and Berry, of Clydach, Swansea, to 19 years each for conspiracy to murder. Mills also received a concurrent 18-month sentence for perverting the course of justice, while Berry received a concurrent 18-month sentence for possession of an imitation firearm, a charge he had admitted. Thomas, of Blaengwynfi, in the Afan Valley, was given a 12-month sentence for possessing an imitation firearm, to which he had pleaded guilty.
The judge told Berry: “Together with Michelle Mills you planned to kill Christopher Mills. 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.” He described text messages between Berry and Michelle Mills, which she deleted but he did not, as the “chilling reality” of a plan that was “thrwarted by the remarkable fortitude and courage of Mr Mills, who fought you and your accomplice off”.
Addressing Michelle Mills, the judge said she deleted the messages because they were incriminating, and that she had cultivated Berry’s animosity towards her husband and encouraged him to carry out the plan. In victim impact statements, Christopher Mills said he was “devastated” by the affair and described himself as a “changed person” since the attack, feeling anxious, on edge and unable to trust people. The couple married in 2018, and the affair was said to have begun in June 2024.
