![]() ![]() ![]() I knew I had to try to find out the true scale of what is a hidden problem, and I had to find a way to shout about it.Įvery year, something called the Femicide Census releases a count of every woman in the UK known to have been killed by a man. I first heard about it last February, and from that point on the idea of women’s deaths, unseen, uncounted, has haunted me…. I’ve written about how courts impose just offensively short sentences even when judges have every justification to impose longer terms.Īnd now, I’ve turned my attention to hidden homicides. Since then I have written about how charges of domestic violence are frequently downgraded. But somehow… somehow… Christine was never classified as high risk.Īnd one night, her ex let himself into her house with a key he’d kept and then he shot Christine and her daughter. I just remember how on that day, Jeannette was trembling so hard she could hardly hold her cigarette as she told me how the police had known this man’s abuse was escalating to dangerous levels. Six years ago I sat in the kitchen of a woman called Jeannette Chambers while she shook herself – almost off her chair – with the trauma of telling me how her sister Christine, and two year old niece, Shania, had been killed by Christine’s ex, Shania’s dad. There are some moments I’ll never forget. I’ve interviewed scores of victims, and in the very worst circumstances, their families who are just… broken. I’ve been reporting on domestic abuse for over a decade now. Because this is a problem that’s bigger than anyone really realises. Listener discretion is advised.īut it’s important we really go into this – even when it’s difficult to read, and even when it’s difficult to listen to. In a fourth case, I expose how failings in the system leave a family’s questions unanswered forever.Īnd of course, I need to warn you: this episode – and this series – will detail distressing cases of violence, coercion and controlling behaviour against women. In this series I investigate three remarkable cases about women who may have been killed, but never counted. I’m Louise Tickle, and you’re listening to Hidden Homicides, a podcast series from Tortoise Media. Their stories tell us that something is going badly wrong in how we police domestic abuse. Well, to answer this question, I’m going to need to take you on a pretty dark journey through the British justice system.Īnd I’m going to need to introduce you to other victims, too, and their families. So, why… when Katie and Mitchell Richardson were found dead in his flat, did the police not seriously investigate her death as a potential homicide? They were vicious, and they were detailed, and they were scary. He’d made death threats to Katie before, and to her mum. ![]() And everyone knew that Katie was at extremely high risk from his abusive behaviour. She’s just been seriously assaulted by Mitchell Richardson. She’s nervous, because what you’re listening to is her talking to the police, properly, for the first time – about her boyfriend.Ī man who’s 12 years older than her, called Mitchell Richardson. ![]() She’s got fading purple dip-dye hair.Īnd today she’s pulling on her sleeves, nervously. She’s 21, and she works in a local hairdressers in a seaside town in Devon.Īnd to me she looks so young. ![]()
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