The families of two women murdered in their own homes have called for more support that could save the lives of those trapped in domestic violence.
Jason Poole, whose sister Jennie was murdered by ex-boyfriend Gavin Murphy in 2021, believes a domestic violence register is needed urgently to protect women. And Kashief Ahmed, a nephew of Seema Banu who was strangled to death along with her daughter and son by husband Sameer Syed in 2020, said more needs to be done to help victims.
They spoke to the Irish Mirror as they backed our Stop The Violence campaign to highlight the link between domestic violence and the rising rates of female killings.
Last year 13 females were victims of suspected homicide in Ireland, an analysis of all femicide figures show. This is an increase of six femicides from 2021’s toll of seven. And more than 75 per cent happened at home. Since 2019 there have been 38 femicides, with an average age of 40.
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Mr Poole said the deaths of six women this year so far is “absolutely shocking” and fears more women will lose their lives by the end of the year. He has been campaigning for measures to tackle domestic violence since his sister Jennie, 24, who had two young children, was killed by her ex-partner Gavin Murphy, 31.
He has called on the Government to implement a number of measures under Jennie’s Law to help stop the violence against women. He said family courts are not linking in with criminal law and he believes a register is needed. Mr Poole continued: “Serial perpetrators go out of their way to find women that they can manipulate.
“If they were on a register they’d be monitored and they wouldn’t be able to go to their second or third victim.” He called for “wraparound support” where all organisations feed into one central database with organisations linking in with gardai, GPs, Emergency Departments and so on.
Mr Poole said: “It should have been picked up with Jennifer, the red flags were there. When she went to A&E she told them she fell down the stairs. There should be a mechanism within the service to make a referral to the gardai and the gardai would have the right to inform if someone was on the domestic violence register.”
Meanwhile, the grieving family of Seema Banu told the Irish Mirror: “We will never be the same again.”
Kashief Ahmed championed our Stop the Violence campaign, saying: “This is about women’s rights. Seema’s rights were taken from her before her death. Seema and the kids are not the only ones. More needs to be done in Ireland to help women in similar cases that Seema was in before she was murdered.”
Seema, 37, her daughter Asfira, 11, and six-year-old son Faizan were strangled to death at their home in south Dublin in October 2020 by Sameer Syed. Syed was set to stand trial for the triple murder last year but took his life the week before it was set to start.
Explaining the devastation to Seema’s family, who were in India at the time of her death, Mr Ahmed said: “We will never be the same again. Seema’s father died some weeks later from a broken heart. Seema was trapped by her husband. He had control of her. He tortured her.
“She tried to get away from him a number of times but she couldn’t. And then we lost our three precious gems.”
The inquest into their deaths, which established the three died in an unlawful killing, heard how Syed “tortured” his wife in countless beatings after they moved to Ireland in December 2018.
Mr Ahmed said: “The inquest was very important for us. We got to see the evidence of what really happened. And it showed how much of a coward Sameer was and how he took the easy way out.”
He added: “No one can replace Seema, Asfira or Faizan.”
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