Wife and lover in Carmarthenshire caravan murder plot jailed

A woman and her former sailor secret lover have been jailed for 19 years for plotting to kill her husband in a caravan in south west Wales.

Christopher Mills was attacked by two masked men with guns, gloves and cable ties in the caravan he shared with his wife in Cenarth, Carmarthenshire, on September 20, 2024.

Ethel Mills, 46, known as Michelle, looked ahead, avoiding her husband in the public gallery, as the judge handed down her sentence at Swansea Crown Court after being found guilty in an earlier trial of conspiracy to murder Mr Mills.

One of the masked men, her lover of three months, Geraint Berry, 46, of Clydach, Swansea, was also found guilty of conspiracy to murder.

The other masked man, Steven Thomas, 47, who was recruited by Berry, was acquitted of conspiracy to murder at trial.

However, he was jailed for 12 months after previously admitting possessing a firearm which was used to attack Mr Mills. He will be released once the procedures are completed due to the time he has already spent in preventive detention.

During the sentencing hearing, a lawyer for Mills, 55, told the court that the attack had “practically ruined his life” and that he was suffering flashbacks.

Christopher and Michelle Mills had been married for six years when she began having an affair with Berry, a 46-year-old former Marine. They both worked at a charity for homeless veterans but, within weeks, were sharing murderous thoughts about her husband.

The pair hatched a plan to kill Mr Mills and make it look like a suicide. The first two attempts in late August 2024 ended in failure after Berry fell and injured himself.

The third and final attempt would end in disaster, but only after Mills managed to fight off the two masked men who he believed had broken into his caravan with the intention of attacking him and his wife.

Recalling the night of the attack while giving evidence during the murder trial, Mills said he and his wife were listening to music around 11:30 p.m. after sharing a meal together.

“Michelle had been on the phone,” he told the court. “I assumed he was playing. Apparently not.”

He told the court: “When I opened the door he literally hit me in the face with a gun, ‘Back off, get down,’ he was saying.

“I punched him in the face. I took the gun out of him. He was dressed in overalls and a balaclava. He was much bigger than me,” Mills added.

Berry and Thomas fled the caravan after Mills snatched both guns from them, but their car had been blocked and they had to escape on foot, eventually finding shelter in the undergrowth in a nearby quarry.

Back in the trailer, his wife was trying to cover her tracks. She dialed 999 and told police that two masked and armed men had attacked her husband.

She said her husband had suffered a head injury in the attack and claimed the two men, who were dressed all in black with their faces covered, were strangers to her.

Within minutes, armed officers along with a canine unit and the force’s helicopter rushed to the scene in Cenarth, near Newcastle Emlyn.

Berry and Thomas were located by cameras from heat-seeking helicopters hidden in a hedge. Both were arrested on suspicion of aggravated robbery.

However, the police investigation quickly uncovered a more sinister intent: they found gas masks, balaclavas, cable ties and a fake suicide note that had allegedly been written by Mr Mills to his wife.

Mills was soon linked to a criminal plot to kill her husband and incriminating text messages were found on her and Berry’s mobile phones.

They had made several references to Mr Mills’ murder, including a message written on August 7 of that year, just over a month after their affair began, saying simply that Mr Mills “should just die”.

Two days later they were planning different ways to achieve their fantasy.

There was talk of poisoning her husband with sleeping pills, while Berry floated the idea of ​​shooting Mr Mills.

The jury at his trial heard how Berry had asked an army and navy shopkeeper in Swansea market if he had any weapons and ammunition, only to be told it was not something they sold.

Berry also asked people how to make a Mini Cooper S, the car Mills drove at the time, explode when starting.

Police found a message from Berry to Michelle Mills saying he was meeting with some “guys” to plan “what they’re going to do with him.”

Michelle Mills, whose only concern, police said, was not getting caught, responded, “Yes, honey, thank you.”

With her husband injured and still recovering from the attack, Mills sent her final, damning text message to her lover.

Almost immediately after the men fled the scene, Mills wrote to her: “The police have been called, stay away, delete all communications… please on both phones… I love you.”

In the end, the police were convinced not only of her guilt but also of her central role in the plot to kill her husband.

When she was charged with conspiracy to murder, Mills asked officers, “I’m going to go to prison for this, right?”

The jury at her trial also convicted her of perverting the course of justice, for which she was sentenced to 18 months in prison, to be served concurrently with her 19-year sentence.

Berry was also found guilty of possession of an imitation firearm and received an 18-month jail term to be served alongside his 19-year sentence.