Woman who stabbed abusive partner to death wins bid to overturn murder conviction

A Belfast woman who stabbed her abusive partner to death while he slept has won a legal bid to overturn her conviction for murder.The Court of Appeal in Belfast ruled on Friday that jurors were misdirected on Julie Ann McIlwaine’s loss of control defence to the killing of James Joseph Crossley in March 2022.Senior judges quashed the guilty verdict and gave the prosecution two weeks to decide if it is to seek any retrial. “We cannot be satisfied that the conviction is safe,” Judge Siobhan Keegan confirmed.READ MOREMcIlwaine (35), who has been serving a minimum 12-year jail term, wept on the video link from Hydebank Prison as the ruling was delivered.She admitted killing her partner but denied murder, claiming to have suffered a temporary loss of control as a victim of domestic abuse. Crossley (38) was stabbed up to 10 times in the chest and abdomen as he lay sleeping beside the couple’s young child at McIlwaine’s former home in the Dunmurry area.The pair had been in a relationship marred by emotional manipulation and coercive control.At the time of his death, Crossley was on bail for an alleged assault against McIlwaine and subject to a restraining order prohibiting any contact with her.Despite a period of separation, they had reestablished their relationship by the night of the killing.The court heard Crossley took medication and went to sleep following arguments where he issued an ultimatum for McIlwaine to choose between him and her family.During police interviews the defendant stated that it all got on top of her and how she considered taking her own life. She described taking a knife from the kitchen, returning to the bedroom and moving the child before repeatedly stabbing her sleeping partner.The prosecution argued that she made rational choices that demonstrated being in control of her actions. In October 2024 a jury at Coleraine Crown Court rejected McIlwaine’s case and unanimously found her guilty of murder.Defence lawyers argued on appeal that they had been misdirected and reached a verdict that went against the weight of expert evidence. Central to the appeal was how the trial judge advised jurors on the legal test for the loss of control defence.Instead of asking them to decide if someone of similar characteristics to McIlwaine “might” have reacted similarly, the question posed was “would” that person have acted in the same way. The judges backed defence submissions that the wording used wrongly imposed a higher threshold for establishing probability. Two consultant forensic psychiatrists had also concluded that a properly directed jury could find McIlwaine met the criteria necessary to establish loss of self-control. Both witnesses highlighted the psychological impact of prolonged abuse and the recognised behaviour responses of victims in coercively controlling relationships.“The misdirection we have identified was highly material, given the uncontradicted expert evidence,” Keegan stated.“The appeal succeeds… and the conviction for murder will accordingly be quashed.”Adjourning the case until October 16th, she told prosecution counsel: “You have to come back to court on what steps you want to take.”