Labour MP Jess Phillips today paid tribute to women who have been killed in the past year where a man has been charged or convicted.
The MP for Birmingham Yardley spent almost five and a half minutes reading out the names of more than 120 women in the Commons.
The Commons chamber fell silent as Ms Phillips highlighted that behind every death there was a story where better victim support or mental health services could have saved the woman's life.
Relatives of Ellie Gould, 17, and Poppy Devey Waterhouse, 24, who were both murdered by their ex-boyfriends, watched on from one of the galleries in the Commons.
The MP for Birmingham Yardley concluded by telling the chamber: “The list is painfully long but in reality the list is much longer. We can make it shorter, let’s act faster.”
Ms Phillips, who reads out the latest list during the annual International Women’s Day debate, said: “The act of remembrance here every year is completely down to the work of Karen Ingala Smith and the Counting Dead Women project.
“She’s the only person keeping this data but her painstaking work over many years has meant that unlike seven years ago, when I first read this list, we are all more aware of the peril of femicide.
“This wasn’t the Government doing the work, it was women giving their labour away for free.”
She added excuses used by perpetrators to get a lighter sentence are used to “victim blame and diminish” a woman’s innocence when applied to her during the “trial of her own death”.
Ms Phillips said: “Every name I’m about to read there will be a story about how better mental health services, even the slightest suggestion of offender management or the availability of quick specialist victims’ support, would have saved their lives.
“The perpetrators killed but it is on us in here if we keep allowing a system where women live under the requirement to give away their labour for free in the pursuit of their own safety.”
In a nod to Sarah Everard, who was murdered by a serving Metropolitan Police officer, Ms Phillips said: “The final name on the list last year when I stood here was a name that we all know. Here are the names of the women killed since that supposedly watershed moment.”
She concluded by naming three women killed in the last month where no suspect has been charged, adding: “And finally to mention Jomaa Jerrare, whose body was dumped and set on fire in a layby last August and nobody has been charged with her murder.
“Many women like Jomaa don’t appear on our lists because no-one is ever charged with their killing or because they die by staged homicide and sudden death – falling from a building, overdose or suicide and we never look into the history of domestic abuse in their cases.
“The list is painfully long but in reality the list is much longer. We can make it shorter, let’s act faster.”
Government minister Trudy Harrison said the “painfully long list” of women killed by men is a reminder of “more work that must be done”.
She said: “The issue of gender-based violence has featured heavily today. As some of you have pointed out, we’re also reeling from the tragic death of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and many other women that the right honourable member for Birmingham Yardley has so poignantly listed.
“I think the painfully long list of women killed by men, such a poignant and powerful if not utterly tragic reminder of more work that must be done. And I would like to put on record my thanks to Karen Ingala Smith for compiling that record.
Full list of women killed in the last year where a man has been charge or convicted
Karen McLean
Stacey Knell
Smita Mistry
Samanth Mills
Dyanne Mansfield
Patricia Audsley
Phyllis Nelson
Klaudia Soltys
Simone Ambler
Emma McArthur
Sherrie Teresa Milnes
Constanta Bunea
Jacqueline Grant
Loretta Herman
Sally Metcalf
Sarah Keith
Peggy Wright
Charmaine O'Donnell
Michelle Cooper
Kerry Bradford
Julia James
Beth Aspey
Susan Booth
Maya Zulfiqar
Maria Rawlings
Chenise Gregory
Agnes Akom
Wendy Cole
Caroline Crouch
Svetlana Mihalachi
Nicola Kirk
unamed woman
Agita Geslere
Alison Stevenson
Lauren Wilson
Penina Kabeba
Jill Hickery
Bethany Vincent (and 9 yr old son)
Leah Ware
Esther Brown
Michaela Hall
Mildred Whitmore
Stacey Clay
Linda Hood
Marlene Coleman
Sophie Cartlidge
Gracie Spinks
Kim Dearden
Michelle Hibbert (& husband)
Sally Poynton
Catherine Wardleworth
Sukhjit Badial
Elsie Pinder
Catherine Stewart
Ishrat Ahmed (husband also attacked)
Tamara Padi
Katie (Kathleen) Brankin
Sandra See
Beatrice Cenusa
Patricia Holland
Louise Kam
Yordanos Brhane
Amanda Selby
Malgorzata Lechanska
Megan Newborough
Diana Nichols
Maxine Davison
Kate Shepherd
Bella Nicandro
Eileen Barrott
Sharron Pickles
Helen Anderson
Jade Ward
Maddie Durdant-Hollamby
Fawziyah Javed
Ingrid Matthew
Unnamed woman, Welwyn Garden City
Sabina Nessa
Terri Harris +3 children (John Bennett, 13, Lacey Bennett, 11, Connie Gent, 11
Sukhjeet Uppal
Norma Girolami
Jekouki Jaboa
Nicole Hurley
Bonnie Harwood
Katrina Rainey
Marta Chmielecka
Ruth Dent
Josephine Smith
Dawn Walker
Yvonne Barr
Sarah Ashwell
Tamby Dowling
Pauline Quinn
Ilona Golabek
Alexandra Morgan
Tricia Livsey (and partner Anothy Tipping, 60)
Bobbi-Anne McLeod
Bori Benko
Jennifer Chapple ( and husband Stephen)
June Fox-Roberts
Malak Adabzadeh, 47
Fernanda, and her father
Amber Gibson
Lily Sullivan
Caoimhe Morgan
Julia Howse
Beverley Tayor (and John Taylor)
Mary Fell *and husband Denis)
Kirsty Ashley
Brenda Blainey
Judith Armstrong
Freda Walker (husband also attacked but survived)
Marlene Doyle
Yasmin Chkaifi
Lucy Powell who was my constituent killed at the age of 21.
Marena Shaban
Lesma Jackson
Ashley Wadsworth
Charissa Brown
Katy Harris
Nicola Shaba
Dawn Trusler
Valerie Warrington (and husband)
She also mentioned the names of three women who have been killed in the last month where no suspect has been charged, they are:
- Clair Ablewhite
- Valerie Free
- Niomi Hunte
And finally a mention for Jomaa Jerrare whose body was dumped and set on fire in a lay-by last august and no one has been charged with her murder.
