Bhajan Kaur was killed by her son after he was arrested on suspicion of coercive and controlling behaviour. Mary Haley was killed by her son at home after he had spent weeks demanding money from her. Sally Poynton was killed by her son after he was discharged from a mental health unit without a diagnosis or support plan. These cases sound like horrifying outliers – but they are part of a pattern. Nearly one in 10 of all women who died at the hands of men in the last 15 years were killed by their sons.
Those are the bleak facts laid out by Alexandra Topping and Jessica Murray in reporting this week on a new report published by the Femicide Census, a group that collates data on the killing of women by men. Yesterday, Alexandra published a new story, which revealed that one in eight women killed by men are over 70, and carried warnings their vulnerability is not properly recognised. While every case has its own specific circumstances, experts say that misogyny is a theme throughout – and that because the situation has previously been so poorly understood, not enough is being done to address it.
