Mylee Billingham stabbing: man held is dead girl's father

A 54-year-old man arrested after an eight-year-old was stabbed to death is understood to be the girl’s father.

West Midlands police were called to an address in Brownhills, near Walsall, at about 9.15pm on Saturday and found Mylee Billingham with serious injuries. She was taken to hospital and died a short time later.

Her father, believed to be Bill Billingham, was found at the same address with a stab wound to his stomach and was arrested for attempted murder. He is expected to undergo surgery in hospital and police said he would be questioned in due course.

Police said they were treating it as a domestic incident and were not looking for anyone else in connection with the crime. A postmortem examination was scheduled to take place on Monday afternoon to establish the precise cause of the girl’s death.

In a statement on Monday morning, DI Jim Colclough, from the force’s homicide unit, said: “This is an absolutely tragic set of circumstances and my thoughts are with everyone who has been affected. We are still at the early stages of understanding exactly what happened and why – but I can confirm we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this investigation.”

At 8.15pm on Saturday night, an hour before police were called to the address, Billingham posted a picture of his daughter on Facebook eating pizza in a bed with the caption: “Pitza on bed lv moo x”.
In a statement on Sunday night, Mark Billingham, Mylee’s uncle and her father’s brother, said: “Please respect my family’s privacy. There will be no further comment at this time.”

Mark Billingham is an instructor to the recruits on the Channel 4 programme SAS Who Dares Wins.