'I’m going to end up in prison over this': Wife and lover jailed over plot to kill husband and make it look like suicide
Michelle Mills, 46, and Geraint Berry, 47, planned an armed hit on Christopher Mills, which was foiled when he fought back and disarmed his attackers
A woman and her secret lover who plotted to have her husband of 10 years killed so they could continue their affair have been jailed for 19 years.
Listen to this article
Michelle Mills, 46, and Geraint Berry, 47, planned an armed hit on Christopher Mills, which was foiled when he fought back and disarmed his attackers.
The pair plotted an ambush on Mr Mills at the caravan the married couple were staying at in September 2024, with the intention of killing the ex-serviceman and making it look like a suicide.
In police body worn video footage of her arrest, Mills can be heard telling officers: "I’m going to end up in f****** prison over this aren’t I?”
The day after the attack on September 21, officers told her they had been informed the incident was not an armed robbery as first thought, but a planned murder attempt.
One of the officers told Mills, who sat at a dining table: “I have had information passed to me that suggests you were involved in the incident last night and it was planned and that the plan was to kidnap and murder Chris. It is alleged that that is what last night was about.”
As Mills put her hands to her head, she told the officers "I don’t know what’s going on.”
Asked if she understood what was happening, Mills said: “No, no I don’t.”
The court heard Berry, and the accomplice he had recruited to help carry out the attack on Mr Mills, Steven Thomas, 47, had in their possession gas masks, imitation firearms, and a typed suicide note purporting to have been written by Christopher Mills.
The fake suicide note, which was shared by Dyfed-Powys Police after all three were sentenced for their part in the plot at Swansea Crown Court and was littered with spelling errors, had Mr Mills admitting to “beating and raping” his wife and that he could not live with what he was said to have done.
It read: “Dear Babs, I’m writing this letter to explaining everything that has happened between us these past few months.
“I’m really sorry for everything that I have done to you i.e. laying my hands on you when I have been drinking a lot of alcohol every day and been staying at the caravan and not staying the family home were you and William are living.
“I’m not happy with what I have do to you Babs Ie beaten you and raping you and I should have done that to and by the time you get this letter I’ll be gone because I can’t live with myself cause every time, I look at you I can see I have hurt you I’m guilty for what I have dine to you and I shouldn’t of done what have put you through…..
“I’ll always love you from loving partner Chris X x x x x”.
After the items were found when Berry and Thomas were spotted by the National Police Air Service helicopter hiding in bushes near the scene, the case was referred to CID to investigate, and the full extent of what had been planned began to unravel.
Digital forensic investigations linked Mills to the suspects, with messages between her and Berry revealing they had been having an affair.
Despite telling police she had no idea why her husband was targeted, officers discovered she had played an integral part in conspiring to murder her husband.
Dyfed-Powys Police said messages from August 2024 onwards revealed that Mills and Berry had been conspiring to kill Mr Mills.
They communicated a number of ways in which they could take his life ranging from suffocating him while he slept, or overdosing him on sleeping tablets, to poisoning him with antifreeze in his gravy or foxgloves in his salad.
Berry also contacted a friend asking where he could acquire a gun with a suppressor, and how to make a car explode when the ignition was started.
Messages detailed two aborted visits to Mr Mills’ caravan on August 28 and 29, with Berry injuring his knee during a fall.
On the third and final attempt – on September 20 – Mills told Berry she would encourage her husband to drink so he would fall asleep.
Messages were retrieved from Berry informing Mills he had arrived at the holiday park, just moments before they burst into the caravan.
After the incident, Mills had sent a message to Berry saying: “Police have been called, get away. Delete all communications please. On both phones.”
While Mills had deleted the texts from her phone, Berry had not – which Mr Justice Nicklin KC said during sentencing would go on to provide “key evidence” to prove the plot was not just a “fantasy” as both Berry and Mills had tried to claim.
Detective Inspector Sam Gregory from Dyfed-Powys Police said: “From start to finish, Mills denied any involvement in the plot.
“At first she claimed she did not know the men who had attacked her husband, and then on finding out that these messages had been uncovered, she claimed she thought it was all just a fantasy.
“At no point did she tell Berry she didn’t want to go through with any of their plans or try to stop Berry from making them a reality. Her only concern was not getting caught.”