Mum of murdered students calls for officials to believe abuse victims
Family photo
Pauline Jones’ daughter, Bethany Fields, was murdered by her ex partner in 2019
The mother of a young woman who was killed by her former boyfriend has called for a changes in how domestic abuse victims are treated.
Student Bethany Rae Fields was murdered by Paul Crowther in Huddersfield in 2019, even though she had warned the police he had made threats to her and others in the month before her death.
Bethany’s mother, Pauline Jones, has set up a campaign in her daughter’s memory and said the authorities should act quicker to protect abused women who are asking for help.
West Yorkshire Police said it had apologised to Bethany’s parents for having missed “opportunities” to protect her.
The campaign, BRF, uses Bethany’s initials as an acronym but also stands for Believe, React Fast, which is the message Ms Jones wants to take to the police and others with responsibility for looking after domestic abuse victims.
Family handout/West Yorkshire Police
Bethany Fields had told the police about her former partner’s threatening behaviour before he killed her
Ms Jones said: “My daughter was not believed. They didn’t react and they didn’t do it fast enough.”
She said her daughter had been intelligent, articulate and a good communicator.
“If someone of my daughter’s calibre could not make herself believed and listened to, then it’s hard to imagine other women making themselves understood. They need to be taken seriously.”
She said the one thing victims did not have was time.
“That’s why react and fast is imperative. No-one knows when that perpetrator is going to strike and (when) that victim becomes a fatality.”
Pauline Jones said the way the authorities respond to domestic abuse needed to change
Crowther was given a life sentence in 2020 for fatally stabbing 21-year-old Bethany.
He admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility and Leeds Crown Court heard he had not been detained by mental health services.
This was despite him telling them he wanted to attack others and take his own life.
Ms Jones, from Leeds, said that besides the police, Bethany had also reported concerns to her GP.
“The sharing of information would help to save many peoples’ lives,” she added.
“We live in a computerised age. Why hasn’t it been done?”
Ms Jones’ campaign was mentioned at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
She said she felt Sir Keir Starmer’s response to her case had been “positive” and that adopting BRF would help the government’s pledge to halve domestic violence against women and girls over the next 10 years.
Leeds North West MP Katie White raised the BRF campaign in Parliament this week
The issue was raised in Parliament by Ms Jones’ MP Katie White.
The Labour MP for Leeds North West, said there needed to be changes in how domestic violence was treated by society and a “cultural shift” to believing victims.
“At the moment the onus is on victims to prove they’re in danger,” she said.
“That’s not working, clearly, and it didn’t work for Bethany, sadly.”
West Yorkshire Police said it accepted the findings of a domestic homicide review and an independent policing investigation following Bethany’s death.
The force said the recommendations from those inquiries had been implemented and that its approach to domestic abuse had been “developed and amended” in “many ways”.
“We have met with Bethany’s parents and apologised to them for our failings and the lost opportunities to protect their daughter,” the force said.
“While we are committed to continual learning, we realise this won’t bring back Bethany, who lost her life in truly horrific circumstances.”
Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
#Mum #murdered #students #calls #officials #abuse #victims