An independent investigation found that a 23-year-old Portuguese woman, who was found dead at home in the UK in April 2020, had contacted the police seven times in the previous 12 months due to attacks on her partner.
In the months before her death, the woman called the police seven times, including two times, according to a New York Times (NYT) investigation, which had access to a report on the case conducted by the Independent Police Conduct Department. made on April 8, the day of his death.
The report mentions several failures by the British police in this case.
The first call came in May 2019 when she was pregnant with her second child. At the time, the victim told police that her partner had threatened to kill her, that he was cruel and “too jealous.”
However, the woman did not want to file a complaint with her partner, who was then 30 years old.
According to the NYT, a Portuguese woman who has been in England since 1999 wanted help but did not want to invoke the law. According to the victim’s mother, she loved her partner and expected him to change.
The violence repeated itself, and according to the mother and family friend, the couple’s disagreement was related to drug abuse by the partner.
In the following months, the victim called the police three more times. On the fourth call in November 2019, she stated that her partner had pushed and immobilized her, and the Portuguese woman retaliated in her defense. According to the report, the policeman “gave advice to both sides.”
On December 29, the victim called the police again, who thought she was “hysterical,” and complained that her partner hit her in the face and beat her so that she could barely breathe on Christmas and that the next day. , this one pressed his head against the wall.
Due to resource constraints, the two deployed agents arrived just four hours after the call. On the spot, the person in charge noted that the couple had “communication problems” and said that he was not “worried.”
Despite the victim’s reluctance to file a complaint, the authorities were able to look for alternatives to ensure the victim’s well-being.
The American newspaper cites another report from the Domestic Violence Complaints Analysis Department, dated 2014, which stated that agents should “build a case for the victims, not wait for the victims to build a case for the police.”
The penultimate call by a Portuguese woman to the police took place on the morning of April 8, 2020. The victim said that her partner threw her on the bed and squeezed her neck, leaving marks. Before leaving the house, the suspect again threatened to kill her.
The victim agreed to file a complaint that day, telling police that she “lost count” as often as her partner attacked her.
A few hours later, the man was arrested in tears when he was taken away by security forces. He was released on the same day. The agents described him as “sorry” and one of them said it was not a “threat.”
According to the directive received by the police, they cannot detain too many suspects to prevent the spread of covid-19, the attacker was released after promising not to visit her partner’s apartment and not contact her. You lied.
He was released at 18:04 without police supervision, and 20 minutes later he contacted the victim via the social network Facebook, thereby violating the terms of his release.
He asked her and she replied that he attacked her again and that “I just wanted to have a happy family.”
According to his mobile phone, the suspect was again at the victim’s apartment at 20:10. Three hours later, the victim called for help one last time, saying that her partner had attacked her and tagged her.
The police officer who answered the call did not verify the victim’s address or name against the transcript, which means he was unaware of other requests for help.
Only after hanging up the phone, the agent, who asked the victim if he needed an ambulance – which he refused – realized the seriousness of the situation after seeing the police warning about the victim’s address.
At 01:00 on April 9, police visited the victim’s mother to inform her that her daughter had died.
The Portuguese woman was 23 years old and suffered from heart disease, diagnosed in 2015. Tests conducted after her death showed that the aggression could trigger heart failure.
The victim’s mother told police that it was “the perfect crime” because the victim’s partner “knew what would happen if he disturbed her” and that the victim could die.
Despite the Portuguese woman’s death, prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charge after a cardiologist hired by the suspect’s lawyers said the heart problem could have been the result of aggression or simply verbal reasoning.
The victim thus integrated the grim statistics, becoming one of 16 women or children who died in alleged domestic homicides during the first month of imprisonment in the UK – three times more than in the same period in 2019.
The suspect, who was sentenced to 10 months in prison for serious assaults, has served his sentence and is now at large.
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