A woman has been found guilty of the murder of her partner in west Belfast two years ago.
Julie Ann McIlwaine from Kilwee Lane in the Dunmurry area was bent double in the dock of Coleraine Crown Court as Mr Justice Kinney told her the unanimous verdict of the jury adding, “the only sentence that I can pass on you under the law is life imprisonment”.
He said once reports had been gathered together, he will then “hold a tariff hearing” where the 33-year-old mother-of-four will be told the minimum period she will spend in jail before she can even be considered for release.
The jury of five men and seven women deliberated for around more than eight hours over the course of two days before returning to unanimously convict McIlwaine of the murder of her partner James Joseph Crossley on 2 March 2022.
The 38-year-old victim sustained fatal stab wounds at McIlwaine’s former home in Filbert Drive, also in Dunmurry.
The court heard during the trial of how the pair were in a relationship marred by domestic abuse and coercive control.
The jury had also heard how Crossley had given her an “ultimatum” of choosing between either him or her family on the day he was killed.
She was recorded telling police the situation had got to the point where “I’m thinking it’s either him or me…if I don’t get rid of him I have no way of escaping from him…it’s either him for me”.
“I just couldn’t take any more. I would’ve ended up with nothing. I would’ve had no one and nothing - I felt that was the only option…I didn’t think he would’ve died…he would’ve ended up killing me - that was my only option.”
While McIlwaine had always admitted inflicting the fatal stab wounds, she fought the murder charge on a partial defence of a loss of self control.
During her police interviews McIlwaine told detectives she and Crossley had been arguing off and on that day but as her victim lay sleeping “I was getting all these thoughts in my head…I didn’t know what was going on…I felt like a psychopath.”
Two psychiatrists gave evidence and while they did not give a view on whether McIlwaine had suffered a loss of control, the culmination of the physical assaults, psychological abuse and coercive control would have created a “traumatic bond” between McIlwaine and Mr Crossley.
Following the jury’s verdict, Mr Justice Kinney emphasised their role was an “integral part” of the justice system and thanking them for their patience and the “conscientious way” they had approached the case, he said they had to deal with “very difficult evidence.”
Defence KC Eilish McDermott asked for the judge to order a pre-sentence report and the judge agreed and suggested the case could be reviewed in two weeks to set a time table for various reports and the tariff hearing.
Remanding McIlwaine into custody, he adjourned the case to November 6.
As convicted killer McIlwaine was lead away to the cells, there were angry shouts exchanged between her family and the grieving relatives of Mr Crossley.