Refuge, the charity that helps women and children escape domestic violence has launched a new campaign called #KnowHerName. On Friday 6th February the national domestic violence charity published a list of names to commemorate the lives of the 268 women who have been killed as a result of domestic violence from 2010 to 2013. Refuge is now renewing its call for a public inquiry into police and state responses to domestic violence.
Sandra Horley CBE, chief executive of national domestic violence charity Refuge, says: “Two women are killed every week by a current or former partner and too often opportunities to protect them – to prevent their deaths – are missed. Refuge hears, day in day out, of police failing to arrest perpetrators, CPS failing to prosecute, GPs failing to share concerns, Social Services failing to investigate. This has gone on long enough. Something has to change and that is why Refuge is calling for a public inquiry into the police and state response to domestic violence…
“That is why today Refuge is publishing a list of names of women who have been killed in a context of domestic violence from the start of 2010 to the end of 2013. That’s 268 names. These women are not statistics. They are real people – sisters, daughters, mothers. Women like Rachael Slack (and her two-year-old son, Auden), Linah Keza, Natasha Trevis, Christine Chambers (and her two-year-old daughter, Shania), Jeanette Goodwin, Samantha Laney, Rebecca Sessacar, Sarah Gosling, Jane Clough, Christine Lee and her daughter, Lucy Lee. The list goes on and on and on. But it must not go on any longer. We must all speak out for the dead to protect the living. Please add your name to Refuge’s petition urging the Government to open a public inquiry. #KnowHerName.”
The numbers are shocking and demonstrate how domestic violence and abuse is a huge problem in the UK. Stacy Banner, whose mother Christine Lee and sister Lucy Lee were murdered by her step father John Lowe, said: “I had heard the statistic that two women are killed every week by a partner or ex-partner. But I never thought that one week those two women would be my two women – my mum and my sister."
The campaign is backed by several families who have lost loved ones to domestic violence. You can add your support to these families by signing Refuge's petition calling for the Government to open a public inquiry here.
