‘You were told’: Killed Women report shows deaths could have been prevented

Two-thirds of 115 bereaved families surveyed by Ipsos thought the fatal attack on their loved one had been very or fairly preventable

When the police arrived at Kimberley Seeger’s house to tell her that her sister, Gemma Marjoram, had died of stab wounds, she was so overcome with anger that she collapsed on the floor. “I screamed, I cried and I blamed them. I said, ‘this is your fault’.”

Marjoram had been murdered by her ex-partner, Michael Cowey, after a seven-year relationship with a man who exerted coercive control, including controlling her phone and finances and trapping her in the house. He had been arrested several times for his abusive behaviour towards her, and to other women previously, yet the police did not consider her to be at high risk.