August 23

 

Hello and thank you all for coming to join us this evening.

 

We meet here on the first Monday of every month to remember the UK women who have been killed by men.

 

This is the 24^th time we’ve met now, nearly two years where 3 women a week have been murdered by men, nothing has changed in the numbers being reported and nothing has changed in the way they are reported or the seriousness that is attributed to the situation by politicians.

 

That makes me sad and frankly more than a little bit angry…

 

Last month we heard from Polly Newall’s report how many aspects of society in the UK are still very much organised around the principles of patriarchy where men hold most of the power and where women are disadvantaged and denied equality with men. Amongst other things, she said, this sends the message that women are less valuable or important than men and boys, whether in the home, in the workplace, or in wider society

 

I’m going to tell you about my afternoon yesterday and how angry I got.

 

I went to a cricket event – a women’s match followed by a men’s match. It’s promoted as being family friendly and encouraging a new audience for cricket.

 

To my right and left were two families both with two girls who I would guess were about 7 -10.

 

We all watched the women’s game and had a great time.

 

During the interval before the men’s match, four men in their 30s came and sat in front of us and their 6 sons were sitting in front of them – the same sort of age as the girls in our row.

 

 

Oh I can’t tell you how hideous these men were.

 

Honestly, the sexual inuendo directed at the two players named Cox and Whilley was the least of it. And it started with the Dads and was then of course taken up by the sons.

 

The stuff directed at the young woman a few rows in front of them… well I’m not sure the boys understood it but it wont stop them repeating it. And the men that were with the woman did absolutely nothing to discourage it. So did they encourage it…? They certainly allowed it.

 

But the one that made me most furious was the guy who said to his mate “I worked out the other day that when I’m 50 my daughter will be 21, and honestly, when her mates come round and they’re all getting ready to go out to a party…. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. Apart from, you know… the obvious!”

 

One of his mates suggested he should fit some cameras.

 

 

 

Yes – I should have said something.

Yes – I could have gone to the stewards.

Yes, I lost sleep last night because I didn’t do either and instead I’m using this speech to vent and, apologies for that. But sorry not sorry.

 

I sat and listened to these men sending the message to their sons – and anyone else in earshot - that women are less valuable or important than men and boys, whether in the home, in the workplace, or in wider society.

 

And maybe that’s part of why men kill women, because they don’t value them or see them as being equals.

 

 

 

Here now is the sad list of the 12 women whose deaths have been reported as murders since we last met –

 

3 June 2023: Elizabeth Richings, 83, was found dead at a property in Bournemouth. Grenville Richings, 83, has been charged with murder.

 

20 June 2023: Fiona Holm, 48, was last seen alive. Carl Cooper, 65, has been charged with her murder and the murder of Naomi Hunte, 41, who was found stabbed to death at home on 14 February 2022. Cooper was known to both women.

 

26 June 2023: Sarah Henshaw, 31, was found dead in a lay-by off the M1, near Chesterfield. She had not been seen since 20 June. Darren Hall, 36, has been charged with murder.

 

27 June 2023: Lynette Nash, 64, was found with serious injuries at her home in Portishead. She died at the scene. Her son, Gavin Nash, 39, has been charged with murder.

 

27 June 2023: Elizabeth Watson, 58, was found dead at her home in Aberdeenshire. Jonathon Divers, 30, has been charged with murder.

 

That brought June’s total by our records to 13, one every 2 or 3 days.

                         

 

14 July 2023: Rose Jobson, 69, is believed to have been shot and killed by her husband, Robert Jobson, 84. They had separated recently, when he shot her and then himself, in Thornton Curtis, North Lincolnshire.

 

17 July 2023: Colette Law, 26, was found dead in a tent in churchyard in Lincolnshire. Paul Neilson, 30, has been charged with murder.

 

17 July 2023: Kerry Newman, 40, was found dead down a path in Rochdale. A man and a woman have been charged with murder. It is not currently known if there was any relationship between Robert Halliwell, 48, Melanie Bullen, 52, and the victim, Kerry.

 

21 July 2023: Sharon Gordon, 58, was found dead at her home in Dudley. Peter Norgrove, 43, has been charged with murder.

 

24 July 2023: Ann Blackwood, 71, was found fatally injured in a cemetery in Stubbington, Hampshire. Her ex-husband, Martin Suter, 66, has been charged with murder

 

29 July 2023: Hazel Huggins, 53, was found dead at a home in Plymouth, Devon. Bradley Huggins, 24, has been charged with murder.

 

 

So, well, I’ve got nothing else to say. I think the list speaks for itself.

 

Thank you for your time this evening and I hope you will join us again on Monday September 4th.