Killer ‘must serve 12 years’

A FORMER Ballymena man must serve at least 12 years, without remission, of his life sentence before he can be considered for release for drowning his partner 15 years ago.

William Mawhinney (50), who has already launched an appeal against his conviction last month, has always denied murdering his former partner Lorraine Elizabeth Mills in May 1995 in the Staffa Drive home in Ballymena they’d shared with their two daughters.

However, following his sentencing by Mr Justice Weir, his eldest daughter Kelly Keely said it had been “difficult to watch him” and that her “only hope is that one day he will feel remorse for what he took away from us”.

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She added that she had given evidence against him “for my mum” and that she “just wanted my mum to be proud of me, and I wanted justice for her, she deserved it and that’s what kept me going”.

A tearful Kelly said that while she had hoped her father would have been given a longer sentence, she was “glad it is over now and hopefully we can get on with our lives”.

Chief Inspector Gary Crawford said justice had been done and that the case was a timely reminder to others that no matter how long ago crimes like murder were committed, the police “will bring you to justice”.

This was the second time Mawhinney was arrested for the murder of 35-year-old Ms Mills. He was initially arrested at the time of the killing on May 25, 1995, but subsequently released, only to be re-arrested in July 2009 at his then home in Highfield Road, Gracehill March, in Cambridgeshire.

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Police reopened the case after his 22-year-old eldest daughter Kelly claimed she watched him do it, and his estranged wife Gwen allege that he’d confessed to her.

Sentencing him last week, Mr Justice Weir said while Mawhinney’s 12-year tariff will begin from the date of his re-arrest, he will serve the remaining term in full as unlike a fixed term, a tariff attracted no remission for good behaviour.

Mr Justice Weir said it was accepted that the starting point of 12 years was applicable and that it was his “overall conclusion” the tariff sentence should remain so as the “mitigating factors are finely balanced with the aggravating factors”.

Earlier the judge said that there was “no dispute in this case” that when she drowned Ms Mills was taking a bath whilst heavily intoxicated.

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Mr Justice Weir said it was implicit by the jury’s verdict that they had rejected Mawhinney’s case that he’d found her dead in the bath and accepted the prosecution case that he had drowned her.

However, during the trial the court heard that Ms Mills was so drunk, seven times over the drink driving limit, that state pathologist Professor Jack Crane concluded that it was “quite conceivable she had lost consciousness whilst in the bath, resulting in accidental submergence and drowning”.

Kelly Keely, who claimed that as a six-year-old she witnessed her mother being drowned by her father, also claimed her mother had been “sober... singing her favourite song, Danny Boy” that morning.

The jury of seven women and five men also accepted claims by Mawhinney’s estranged wife Gwen that he had “boasted” to her that he had “got away with murder”.

However, she accepted that while he confessed in 2002, she kept his secret for six years before phoning police in the middle of the night and telling them of his “boasts” after they’d separated.

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