Recognising domestic violence as a cause of death: One mother's long fight (trigger warning)

(long, incredibly heartbreaking read)

Recognising domestic violence as a cause of death: One mother’s long fight (trigger warning)

It has taken six years for the grieving mother of a suicide victim to be listened to by the UK authorities.
[Jawahir Al-Naimi/Al Jazeera]
By Scarlet Hannington
Published On 21 Sep 202421 Sep 2024



A talented hairdresser with a knack for convincing people to get dressed up in fancy dress for parties, Jessica Laverack (affectionately known as Jessie) was the youngest of three siblings, owned 52 pets at one point, and warmly jostled with her elder sister for their mother, Phyllis’s, attention, even as adults. In the aftermath of traumatic events, life is often fragmented into “before” and “after”. That was Jessie’s “before”. During the summer of 2017, Jessie, aged 33, fled more than 50 miles from her home in Rotherham in northern England to escape her ex-partner, after two occasions on which he had strangled her.

It was at this moment that a litany of failings from a supposed safety net of professionals, institutions and organisations started racking up, Phyllis, 68, a retired health visitor from East Riding, says she can see in retrospect. South Yorkshire Police had attended the scene in Rotherham in May 2017 when Jessie’s former partner first strangled her – rendering her unconscious – but, according to Phyllis, were “treating Jessie as if she was lying” with “clear gaps in their training”. They referred Jessie to an Independent Domestic Violence Adviser, who then actioned a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) – a review by voluntary and statutory organisations in which they discuss high-risk victims of domestic abuse – as standard procedure.


. . . .



With services and systems of support proving elusive, Jessie saw no escape. She took her own life one Friday in February 2018. Her parents had arrived that morning to finish putting up the wallpaper they had picked out with her just days before.
domestic violence


*********One in eight female suicides or suicide attempts occur as a direct result of domestic violence or abuse, according to the Women and Equality Unit of the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics (PDF), while recent data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (PDF) shows that increasing numbers of domestic abuse victims end up taking their own lives. In four out of five cases where they do, the abuser was already known to the police.*********

. . . .
Shortly after Jessie’s death, Phyllis and her husband moved, in fear of Jessie’s ex-partner finding them. If she hears that her daughter’s perpetrator is in a new relationship that has signs of coercive control or physical abuse, she drives to the nearest police station and makes sure his new partner can access information on him under Clare’s Law, a scheme which enables police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s or ex-partner’s previous abuse or violent offending. Phyllis believes she is being listened to now, but it’s taken six years since her daughter’s death to get to this point. “I’ve been retelling this story for years now. I’m used to it,” she says. “People always say Jessie would be proud, but she wouldn’t. She’d be so upset and heartbroken that we’re having to go through this.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/9/21/recognising-domestic-violence-as-a-cause-of-death-one-mothers-long-fight