Some 80 women have allegedly been killed by men in the UK in 2024, figures show.
Data from the campaign group Counting Dead Women, shared with The Independent, estimates 80 women have been killed in cases where a man has been charged in relation to her death.
But campaigners told of an additional 11 cases where women have died in suspicious circumstances in 2024 but nobody has been charged.
Karen Ingala Smith, who set up Counting Dead Women, which records the women who have been killed by men in the UK, said the true figures are very likely to be higher than those they have provided.
The campaigner warned of the women who will be celebrating New Year’s Eve on Tuesday evening who will not be alive to see in the beginning of 2026.
Ms Ingala Smith told The Independent the death toll “will almost definitely be an undercount”.
She added: “There are likely to have been women killed in the last couple of days where a man hasn’t been charged yet. There may be women whose bodies haven’t yet been found, women who may be killed tonight, and our annual Freedom of Information requests always find some women who we missed, usually because the media didn’t report or barely reported."
Ms Ingala Smith explained figures from the Femicide Census, an annual study which she launched, shows on average in the UK, a woman is killed by a man every three days.
“Until we, as a society, are prepared to admit to the reality of men’s violence against women, the appalling role call of women killed at the hands of men, often men who were supposed to have loved them, will continue. Year on year. It’s horrific to imagine that around 100 women celebrating the new year, will not see the next one.”
Wendy Francis is among those women who lost their lives in 2024 - with the 61-year-old found dead by police at her home in Worcester in March.
Damian Homer, her daughter’s boyfriend, was charged with murdering her in a “brutal” knife attack and was jailed for life. He previously admitted murder and attempted murder of his girlfriend Stacey Hill at Worcester Crown Court.
While Rachel McDaid is another woman who tragically lost her life this year. Michael McDaid admitted to killing the 53-year-old at her home in Nottinghamshire in April. McDaid who perpetrated the “cold-blooded” murder of his estranged wife by strangling her with a bootlace has been imprisoned for life.
The Bishop of London previously told The Independent that something must be done to stop families having to go through the trauma of losing mothers, daughters and sisters as a result of homicides against women.
Dame Sarah Mullally, the first woman to take on the role, said that the gulf left behind when a woman is murdered is “truly unfathomable”.
