A mother whose daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend has said she and her fellow bereaved will not stop demanding action from the Government to save women’s lives.
Julie Devey will gather in Parliament on Thursday with other people who have lost women in their lives to violence by men.
MPs will once again listen as the names are read out of the women killed in the UK in the past year, where a man has been convicted or charged as the primary perpetrator.
Since being elected in 2015, Labour MP Jess Phillips has carried out the task of reading the names aloud during the annual International Women’s Day debate.
Ahead of this year’s reading, Ms Devey – who has co-founded the campaigning organisation Killed Women – said she feels power in joining together with other affected families, but questioned what she sees as a lack of action to stop the problem.
Her daughter Poppy Devey Waterhouse was brutally murdered by her ex-partner after he failed to come to terms the end of their three-year relationship.
Joe Atkinson was jailed in 2019 for life with a minimum of 15 years and 310 days as the court heard how the maths graduate was “fuelled by jealousy” when he carried out the killing of his “prodigiously gifted” former girlfriend.
Ms Devey said her world “came to a halt” when she got news of her daughter’s death, and feels “nothing has changed” since her name was read out in Parliament in 2019.
As bereaved families, we have faced endless failures from the agencies that were supposed to deliver justice for our daughters, or protect our mothers, aunts, nieces and loved ones— Julie Devey
She said: “We gather here now listening to this year’s needless death toll and ask where is the action, where is the urgency, where is the justice?
“Standing together with other families who have endured similar tragedies, and the solidarity and strength that comes from our connection, feels very powerful.
“As bereaved families, we have faced endless failures from the agencies that were supposed to deliver justice for our daughters, or protect our mothers, aunts, nieces and loved ones. We will not stop demanding action from Government to save women’s lives. We will be a force to be reckoned with.”
The group Killed Women was launched in 2022 and is made up of a number of bereaved families of women killed by men.
The network, representing victims of crimes that span four decades, is calling for an “end to the ‘culture of gross negligence’ that has led to a woman being killed every three days”.
The group said there have been a “litany of failures from public bodies and services and negligent inaction from successive governments”.
These killings should not be accepted as inevitable; they are a symptom of the lack of strategic priority afforded to ending men’s violence against women.— Karen Ingala Smith
They listed issues including what they described as sub-standard investigations by police, failures of intervention from social services and children’s services, lenient sentencing in court, failures to stop repeat offenders and a lack of effective education on domestic abuse and coercive control for young people.
Dr Hannana Siddiqui, of charity Southall Black Sisters, called for a recognition of the “additional barriers to support, and prejudice and discrimination, that black and minoritized women face” as she added that this year’s reading of the names must “galvanise action from Government”.
Karen Ingala Smith, who compiles the list of names each year as part of the Counting Dead Women project, said: “These killings should not be accepted as inevitable; they are a symptom of the lack of strategic priority afforded to ending men’s violence against women.
“As the names of the women lost this year are read out in Parliament, we honour their lives, stand with the families and friends left behind, and urge action from those with power to make a difference.”
