Four in 10 women killed by male partner tried to leave

Four in 10 women who were killed by a male partner had taken steps to leave him, figures show, as Labour’s Jess Phillips admitted the scale of violence is a “national emergency”.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN CRIME CORRESPONDENT

A total of 122 women were killed by a man in 2022, according to the 14th annual Femicide Census, with more than half targeted by their current or former partner. At least 40 per cent of those killed by a partner had ended the relationship or were trying to leave when they were killed.

The report’s authors warned too many dangerous men are being left at “liberty to harm, rape and kill” after the data showed almost six in 10 perpetrators were known to have a history of violence against women or were subject to monitoring or restrictions when they killed.

They include Jordan McSweeney, who had 28 previous convictions for 69 separate offences and was wanted on recall to prison when he brutally murdered Zara Aleena.

Last year an inquest found a string of failures from multiple agencies left him free to kill the aspiring lawyer, 35, as she walked home in Ilford, east London, on 26 June 2022.

Other shocking examples include a killer who was on extended licence for rape when he strangled his wife and cut her throat with a Stanley knife. Another was under investigation for rape when he killed, sexually assaulting his victim and inflicting more than 90 injuries.

Karen Ingala Smith, who co-founded the Femicide Census in 2015 to track rates of male violence against women, said the government would have to act fast to meet their target of halving violence against women and girls (VAWG) in 10 years.