June 2024

 

Hello and welcome to our June vigil.

We meet on the 1^st Monday of each month to highlight the issue of male violence against women and girls, and to honour the women killed by men.

 

Here’s a quick update on the direction of my rage this month…

This newspaper headline "A grandad who killed his wife and then went to Costa Coffee for a cup of tea has been jailed for six years after being found guilty of manslaughter."

Costa gets three further mentions during the article... is it just me or is that really not the point?

 

Stuart Robertson strangled his partner Dawn, 62, before placing a crucifix in her hands and boarding a bus to St Helens town centre and handing himself into the police. But first he paused 'for a cup of tea' at the coffee chain a jury heard during his trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

The 69-year-old was unanimously cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.

 

Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: You killed her by strangling her during a violent assault in the early afternoon of the 15th of November 2023. Having fatally injured her, you laid out her body and then you went to the local police station and confessed to what you had done.

That seems a reasonable start, but then came the following – a summary of some of Judge Menary’s more disgraceful points

He talked about the background and a context to these tragic events and said that the jury heard in some detail about the nature of your relationship, the marriage which was happy at first and produced two children but steadily deteriorated over many years - principally because of the abuse of alcohol. It seems that Dawn was a delightful person when sober, but a horrible person after she had had a drink.

Then he said there came a point more than a decade ago when Stuart stopped drinking, but sadly Dawn never did.

He continued - the evidence is that most of the arguments were started by your wife, and those consisted of her repeatedly and continuously belittling and undermining you.

The judge said that he was satisfied that Robertson did not have the necessary intention to be guilty of murder, but instead that the killing was due to a loss of control in circumstances that were a trigger and made his 'response justifiable'.

I rage at Judge Andrew Menary KC, and finding myself more sympathetic with Stuart Robertson who said "I broke every rule in I believed in as a human being. I’d taken a life. I had no right to do it."

 

Reported since we met last month:

25 April 2024: Karen O’Leary, 63, suffered multiple stab wounds at her home in Leeds. Her husband, Dennis O’Leary, 61, was also found dead. Police believe Karen was the victim of a ‘domestic-related murder’. They are not looking for anyone else in connection with either death.

30 April 2024: Human remains were found in a storage unit in Hertfordshire. They were determined to belong to Annette Smith, 74, went missing from her home in Bedfordshire on 11 November 2023. Scott Paterson, 44, has been charged with murder.

6 May 2024: Tarnjeet Riaz, 44, was found dead at an address in Leicester. Raj Sidpara, 50, is charged with murder.

9 May 2024: Anita Mukhey, 66, was stabbed at a bus stop in Edgeware. Jalal Debella, 22, is charged with murder and possession of an offensive weapon.

13 May 2024: Bhajan Kaur, 76, was found at an address in Leicester. Sindeep Singh, 47, has been charged with murder. Police have referred itself to the IOPC due to previous contact.

15 May 2024: Kathryn Parton, 34, was found with serious head injuries at in address in Belfast. Jamie Love, 23, is charged with murder, aggravated by reason of domestic abuse.

17 May 2024: Emma Finch, 96, was found dead after a house fire in Liss, Hampshire. Joshua Powell, 26, is charged with murder.

21 May 2024: Margaret Parker, 78, was pronounced dead following a disturbance at a property in Edinburgh. Her son, Daniel Parker, 36, has been charged with her murder and the attempted murder of two other women, aged 55 and 42.

24 May: Amie Gray, a 34-year-old personal trainer, was stabbed to death on Durley Chine Beach in Bournemouth. 20-year old Nasen Saadi, from Croydon was charged with her murder and also with the attempted murder of another woman at the same scene.

 

We’ll look forward to seeing back here next month – on Monday July 1^st, 3 days before the next general election. Far be it from me to suggest who you should vote for but I would suggested that if you are undecided you could do worse than to write to all of the candidates and ask them some probing questions about their attitude to support of EVAWG services and also changing EVAWG legislation.

 

As ever, thank you for being here, please feel safe as you make your way home now and please feel empowered to report anything that you suspect is domestic abuse amongst your friends and neighbours.