Domestic homicide review published
Posted on Wednesday 20th December 2017
One Newport, the city's public services board (PSB), has published a domestic homicide review into the death of a woman in August 2013.
Karen (not her real name) was murdered by her estranged husband, identified in the report as Adult B, who then attempted to kill himself.
He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He must serve at least 26 years before he is eligible for parole.
Following the court case, One Newport PSB decided that a domestic homicide review (DHR) should be undertaken.
It commissioned Tony Blockley to carry out the DHR and it has now been published after being agreed by the Home Office.
Mr Blockley's report said nothing in the review indicated that Karen's death could have been predicted or prevented.
There had been limited contact with agencies prior to the murder although it appeared there had been abuse within the marriage for many years.
Following Karen's death, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigated the circumstances and actions of police officers in relation to a number of incidents.
The IPCC concluded that there were misconduct and performance issues for individual officers and a number of organisational shortcomings that Gwent Police needed to address.
Mr Blockley said that as Gwent Police had implemented the recommendations within the IPCC report, there were no outstanding issues raised in the review.
Supt Matthew Williams, the Safe and Cohesive Lead for One Newport, said: "We would like to express our sympathy to Karen's famlly and friends who suffered such a tragic and devastating loss.
"We would like to thank Tony Blockley for his thorough review. DHRs are vital because they highlight where public bodies can improve their responses to try and prevent similar incidents in the future.
"One Newport is pleased to note that, as highlighted in the report, Gwent Police had already taken action to address shortcomings that had been identified by the IPCC."
DHRs are required by law and for Newport this is the responsibility of the One Newport partnership. A DHR considers the circumstances that led to the death of a person aged 16 or over from the violence, abuse or neglect by a relation, partner or ex-partner or a member of the same household. It enables public bodies, and relevant community and voluntary sector organisations to identify where responses to the situation could have been improved.
A copy of the review can be found at the DHR review page