McIlwaine: Mental health of murder accused shared in court

Psychiatrist Dr Christine Kennedy spent eight hours talking with Julie Ann McIlwaine about her relationship with the victim and what happened the night of the stabbing.

She told the court that Julie Ann McIlwaine was “living in chronic fear of James Crossley”.

She said the relationship was one of psychological control with abuse and serious mental and physical violence.

Dr Kennedy told the court that only a small percentage of abusive relationships end with a woman killing a man and that for it to happen while the man is asleep or incapacitated is “rare”.

A barrister for the prosecution took the doctor through the events on the night James Crossley was stabbed saying that the actions of Julie Ann McIlwaine were “rational”.

That she left the bedroom and went down two flights of stairs to choose the biggest knife in the kitchen before returning upstairs to the bedroom and moving their 10-month-old baby who was on the bed beside a sleeping Mr Crossley.

Dr Kennedy agreed saying that they were “all good choices, logical thinking.”

When pushed on if there was any evidence of a “loss of control” she said she couldn’t answer that.