Dad faces life in jail for revenge killing of Mylee
A FATHER who stabbed his eight-yearold daughter through the chest in an act of revenge against his ex-partner is facing life behind bars after being found guilty of her murder.
Factory worker William Billingham, 55, used a kitchen knife to kill Mylee after dragging her by the coat into his bungalow. Moments earlier he had put the blade to the neck of her mother Tracey Taundry.
Described as a “despicable act” by police, a trial heard harrowing details of the murder. Miss Taundry had dialled 999 from outside Billingham’s house, telling operators to hurry as Mylee was screaming “stop it daddy”.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday unanimously convicted Billingham of murder and a separate charge of making a threat to kill 34-year-old Miss Taundry. He will be sentenced today.
Billingham opted not to give evidence. He claimed he had no memory of stabbing Mylee and was guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter due to depression.
But prosecutors argued that Billingham “turned his anger” on Mylee to spite Miss Taundry after she began a same-sex relationship.
Brutal
Prosecutor Karim Khalil QC said of the killing: “It was swift, deliberate, clinical, brutal. It was not some manic unfocused assault.
“This was no accident and it was not a slight injury – it was a deep, violent thrust of a lethal weapon into the most vulnerable part of his young daughter’s body.”
After the verdicts, jurors were told by the judge that Billingham underwent an operation part-way through the trial after injuring his wrists while on remand.
They were earlier told to ignore bandages covering his lower arms after he missed three days of his trial due to a stay in hospital. The father-of-six had made an apparent attempt to end his own life on September 21.
Billingham, who faces a mandatory life sentence, stared at the floor in the dock and showed no obvious emotion after he was convicted.
CCTV footage of Billingham and Mylee visiting a local Costcutter store about two hours before the stabbing was shown to jurors in the first week of the trial. Shortly after leaving the store, Billingham posted a picture on Facebook of an apparently happy Mylee at his home in Brownhills, West Midlands, sitting on a bed eating pizza. Police later attended reports of Billingham wielding a knife after a 999 call made moments after Miss Taundry had arrived to take Mylee home.
Miss Taundry said she heard a “tink” near Billingham’s front doorstep and then spotted a knife as she waited for Mylee to fetch a bag.
Mr Khalil said Billingham – who stabbed himself in the stomach at the scene – had ignored police requests for information about why he stabbed his daughter. Convicted... Billingham, 55