‘Stabbed to death by her father, after he posted this picture’
He is critically ill in hospital with knife injuries
A FATHER who posted a photo online of his eight-year-old daughter was arrested just an hour later for stabbing her to death.
Bill Billingham, 54, is suspected of turning a blade on himself after his little girl Mylee was knifed at the housing association bungalow he had recently moved to.
Last night Mr Billingham, who is separated from the girl’s mother Tracey Taundry, was said to be critically ill in hospital, where police were thought to be at his bedside.
Neighbours told how they had attempted to comfort Miss Taundry in the aftermath of the murder in Brownhills in the West Midlands.
The distraught 33-year-old, who lives nearby, was ‘hysterical’ and could tell them only that a man had ‘stabbed my little girl’.
Just over an hour earlier, Mr Billingham – who a friend said had recently been made redundant from a factory job – posted on Facebook a picture of his smiling daughter snuggled under a duvet with two plates of pizza in front of her.
He captioned it: ‘Pitza on bed lv moo x [sic]’. Other pictures of his daughter posted on preceding days also referred to the girl as ‘moo’.
Mylee was taken to Birmingham Children’s Hospital with stab injuries after police and paramedics were called to her father’s one-bedroom bungalow at 9.15pm on Saturday.
She was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. Mr Billingham was thought to be receiving treatment for stab wounds to the abdomen.
A friend said: ‘I just can’t believe he would do something like this. It’s completely out of character. Him and Tracey were split, but he completely doted on all five children.
‘I used to drink with him in the pub and he seemed like such a normal person.
‘To do something like that is terrible. I just don’t understand how it’s happened.’
Police family liaison officers were yesterday comforting Miss Taundry at her home, half a mile from Mr Billingham’s property.
Another family member said: ‘We have only just come back home after finding out the news. We have hardly slept and are just trying to understand and process what has happened.
‘We still don’t know exactly what has taken place at this point … we are truly devastated.’
Graham Greatrex, 74, who lives in a neighbouring property to Mr Billingham’s bungalow, said: ‘We heard the commotion and the mother was standing outside our house so I went to talk to her.
‘She was in shock … She was hysterical. People were racing around everywhere.’
Fellow neighbour David Taylor, 76, said: ‘I can’t believe what’s happened and it being such a young girl is tragic. This is a lovely area and it’s so shocking that it’s happened here.’
Mr Billingham is believed to have moved to the bungalow in the autumn, from a new-build flat just a street away.
A post-mortem examination is due to take place today to establish the precise cause of Mylee’s death. West Midlands Police said last night: ‘A 54-year-old man found with stab injuries at the property was arrested in connection with the incident.
‘He was taken to hospital for treatment and is currently in a critical condition.’
Detective Inspector Jim Colclough, from the force’s homicide unit, said: ‘This is an absolutely tragic set of circumstances and my thoughts are with everyone who has been affected.
‘We are still at the early stages of understanding exactly what happened and why, but we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this investigation.’
‘We are truly devastated’