Court of Appeal quashes Julie Ann McIlwaine's murder conviction over partner's killing

The Court of Appeal in Belfast on Friday 2 October quashed Julie Ann McIlwaine's murder conviction, ruling that jurors were misdirected on her loss of control defence to the killing of James Joseph Crossley in March 2022. 1 2 The judges gave the prosecution two weeks to decide whether to seek a retrial, and the case was adjourned until 16 October. 1 2 Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said: "We cannot be satisfied that the conviction is safe." She sat with Lord Justice Colton. 1

McIlwaine, 35, of west Belfast, had been serving a minimum 12-year term and wept on the videolink from Hydebank Prison as the ruling was delivered. 1 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 Dunmurry. She admitted the killing but denied murder, claiming a temporary loss of control as a victim of domestic abuse. 1 2 The relationship was marred by emotional manipulation and coercive control. When he died, Crossley was on bail for an alleged assault on McIlwaine and subject to a restraining order barring contact, though the pair had re-established their relationship. 1 2

The court heard Crossley took medication and went to sleep after arguments in which he gave McIlwaine an ultimatum to choose between him and her family. In police interviews she said she had considered taking her own life and described taking a knife from the kitchen, moving the child and repeatedly stabbing him. 1 2 Prosecutors argued at trial that she made rational choices showing she was in control of her actions. In October 2024 a jury at Coleraine Crown Court unanimously found her guilty of murder. 2 1 On appeal, the defence argued the jury was misdirected and reached a verdict against the weight of expert evidence. The trial judge had asked jurors whether a person with similar characteristics "would" have reacted in the same way, rather than whether they "might"; the appeal judges accepted this wrongly imposed a higher threshold. 1 2

Two consultant forensic psychiatrists had concluded that a properly directed jury could find McIlwaine met the criteria for loss of self-control, citing the psychological impact of prolonged abuse. The Lady Chief Justice called the misdirection "highly material, given the uncontradicted expert evidence". 1 2