Jury Convicts Dad Who Killed Daughter to Get Back at Queer Mom

A judge found the man had committed an "act of revenge" when he murdered his child in response to her mother's relationship with a woman.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

Read Full Bio

Tracy E. Gilchrist

October 02 2018 12:02 PM EST

We need your help
Your support makes The Advocate's original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Become a member today to help us continue this work.

A man who killed his 8-year-old daughter in the Birmingham suburb of Brownhills, England, in January as an "act of revenge" because the child's mother was in a relationship with a woman has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in prison, the BBC reported Monday.

A jury at the Birmingham Crown Court took 80 minutes of deliberation to find William Billingham, 55, guilty of stabbing his daughter Mylee to death with a kitchen knife to punish her mother, Tracey Taundry, for beginning a relationship with a woman.

Billingham, who has six children with three women, "killed [his daughter] in order to cause pain to her mother," said Judge Paul Farrer, who presided over the case.

"As such, this was an act of revenge," he added, according to the BBC. "Alternately, this was the brutal, cowardly, killing of a defenseless and much-loved child who had her whole life ahead of her."

The horrific murder occurred when Taundry arrived at Billingham's home to pick their daughter up. Taundry told the court that she heard the "tink" of the knife as their daughter went to pick up her bag in another room.

"I'm going to kill you," Billingham shouted at Taundry as he pulled a screaming Mylee back into the room with them.