Mentally ill woman pleads guilty to killing husband

Syberton Marcelle Miller, who fatally stabbed her husband back in 2018, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter before the High Court.

The plea was accepted by Senior Crown Counsel Neville Watson on Monday after the No. 3 Supreme Court heard details of a report on Miller’s mental health from consultant psychiatrist Dr Ermine Belle.

Miller, who is in her late 60s, admitted to killing her spouse between September 17 and 18, 2018. The body of 68-year-old Cecil Miller was discovered by police in the couple’s No. 92, 5th Avenue Rowans Park North, St George home.

Dr Belle told Justice Carlisle Greaves that Miller had been diagnosed with the treatable but lifelong illness of schizoaffective disorder.

“It means that at times she will present with features of schizophrenia as well as at other times presenting with mood changes which would be consistent with things like depression and being excitable; not necessarily hypomanic but being more excitable than normal and sometimes a mixed picture – both occurring at the same time,” explained Dr Belle who added that not taking medication would “absolutely” aggravate or exacerbate the disorder.

In response to questions from Miller’s attorney Arthur Holder, Dr Belle further disclosed that the only other condition which would have been prevailing was “her paranoid personality”.

“I think it was there from the time she presented to me. . . . She has always had a personality which dictated lack of trust, inability to believe in other persons, and this was particularly in connection with her family members.

“She could also have been said to be pathologically jealous, particularly in her marital situation. It means that this is something that is not consistent with the norm. It is something you would not expect in somebody who is functioning in the best mental health capacity,” the psychiatrist said.

Explaining the concept of diminished responsibility, Dr Belle added: “This would mean that in her situation at the time, she was not able to make an informed decision in the context of whatever was going on at that point in time . . . .”

The psychiatrist told the court she had last seen Miller in June of 2018 and she was on medication at that time.

“Her husband had advised that she was not doing well in that interim but he didn’t advise that she wasn’t taking her medication,” she stated.

Responding to a question from the prosecutor about the impact of any thoughts Miller might have had about her husband being unfaithful, Dr Belle said that would have “exacerbated her condition”.

“Depending on how ill she was at the time, it could be a fundamental problem in the way in which she perceived what was happening at that particular time,” she added.

Miller will be sentenced on May 27. Character witnesses are expected in court on that day to give evidence on her behalf.

Before that, by May 20, attorneys on both sides will submit to the court their written submissions on sentencing.

A report on the time Miller has spent on remand at Dodds is also to be submitted.