A series of seven blue and black plaques have been fixed to properties where women have been murdered by a man, as part of a campaign to highlight “outdated and misogynistic” UK domestic homicide sentencing laws.
Each bespoke plaque includes the woman’s name, their lifespan and the words “killed here”, along with the sentence given to the killer and the words ‘“Murder is murder, change the law”.
The campaign is by Killed Women, a network for bereaved families whose daughters, mothers, sisters or other relatives have been killed by men. It is calling for the government to honour the previous Conservative administration’s commitment to change the law.
On average, men who have killed women in the home serve about 10 years fewer than those who have killed women outside of it, according to the organisation.
The plaques, which have been temporarily affixed to the properties, will later be given to the families, who are taking their campaign to Westminster on Tuesday, meeting MPs including Caroline Nokes, Jess Phillips, Alex Davies-Jones and Jodie Gosling.
Killed Women said: “One woman is killed every three days by a man in the UK – most of [whom] are murdered by people they know, and the murders are generally horrific in nature and involve overkill. However, the final blow for families is often in the sentencing, when the criminal justice system deems their loved ones’ lives are worth 10 years less.”
It is calling on Keir Starmer and the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to include the issue in the government’s agenda as it returns from summer recess.
After a review by Clare Wade KC, the Conservative government opened a public consultation on the starting tariff for such murderers, which closed in March this year.
Analysis of the data collected during the consultation led to confirmation that sentencing for domestic homicides, with the murder taking place inside the home, would rise to 25 years, which was reaffirmed in the Conservatives’ 2024 election manifesto.
Julie Devey and Carole Gould, the co-founders of Killed Women, started campaigning for change after the murder of their daughters, Poppy Devey Waterhouse, 24, from Frome in Somerset, and Ellie Gould, 17, from Calne in Wiltshire, by their ex-boyfriends.
The pair feature on two of the plaques. The other five commemorate Julie Butcher, 25, from Swindon, Elinor O’Brien, 22, from Manchester, Jan Mustafa, 38, from London, Megan Newborough, 23, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, and Claire Tavener (née Willmott), from Nailsea, Somerset.
Devey said: “Sentencing for women murdered in the home by a domestic weapon is unfair. Currently, murderers receive around 10 years less in prison for killing in the home than they do if they kill on the street, which is insulting to the victims and their families.”
She said such sentencing was “the final indignity” to victims and their families. “This must stop. The minimum term must represent the crime and shouldn’t be determined by the location,” she said.
“We want the symbolism of these plaques to raise this issue in the House of Commons. While this won’t bring our loved ones home, at the very least families of future victims will be consoled by the knowledge that justice has been served.”
