A father accused of stabbing his eight-year-old daughter to death after her mother left him for a lesbian partner had previously threatened to jump off a balcony with another son, a court has heard.
William Billingham, of Brownhills near Walsall, is accused of murdering his daughter Mylee as she screamed: ‘Please daddy, no daddy.’
The 55-year-old allegedly carried out the killing to get back at his ex Tracey Taundry after she started a new relationship.
Mylee Billingham was stabbed to death at a house in the West Midlands on January 20
Her father William is accused of killing her to get back at her mother, Tracey Taundry (right)
Murder trial jurors at Birmingham Crown Court have now heard how the father of six threatened to jump from a balcony with a young son when he split from former partner Mandy Reece in 1990.
Dr Philip Joseph, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told jurors: ‘After they argued and she walked out of the building, he said to her ‘haven’t you forgotten something?’
‘She sees him sitting on the balcony with his legs dangling over, holding Daniel – making her think he was going to jump with Daniel in his arms.
‘This was 28 years ago. It would suggest there has been a long-standing problem in his ability to deal with the end of relationships.’
Dr Joseph told the court Billingham did not display the symptoms of having a personality disorder.
‘He said he was primarily stressed about the new relationship Tracey had and he was not seeing the children as a result.
‘He was describing feeling under stress rather than suffering from a depressive episode.
‘A personality disorder is a disorder of someone’s character in the way they have developed across a broad range of domains.’
Ms Taundry saw her ex take their daughter back into the house with a knife, the court heard
Dr Joseph added: ‘They have problems at work, in relationships, with family and there are difficulties in all these areas.
‘His problems are confined entirely to his relationships with women and how he deals with that when they go wrong.
‘My opinion is based on my assessment that he has difficulties in coming to terms with the end of relationships.
‘Mr Bilingham had no psychosis, no depression, no schizophrenia, no auditory or visual hallucinations, no alcohol or drug dependence, no history of harming his children or himself.
‘He just struck without any apparent warning. He has killed his favourite child and then tried to kill himself.
Billingham denies murder and making a threat to kill. The trial continues.
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