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Crime South Wales Torfaen

Torfaen Borough Council must review Ruth William’s death

THE HOME SECRETARY has written to Torfaen County Borough Council ordering them to carry out a domestic homicide review into the death of Ruth Williams, that is despite the Torfaen’s public service board saying they didn’t think there were any lessons to be learned.

Mrs Williams, 67, from Cwmbran was strangled to death by her husband of 46 years in their home in March 2020.

Last month, Antony Williams, 70, said during his trial that he had been feeling depressed and worried about money because of coronavirus. “He just snapped”, the court heard at the start of the first lockdown.

A jury had found him not guilty of the more serious charge of murder and he was jailed for five years after he admitted a charge of manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said she was “not satisfied” with the conclusions reached by Torfaen’s public service board.

She said in a letter to Torfaen council that the board had said they had not conducted a domestic homicide review because “there are no lessons to be learned from this tragic death”.

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She went on to say: “domestic homicide reviews offer a rare opportunity to understand the victim’s life, learn practical lessons and provide the victim’s family with closure – even if the outcome is neutral,” Ms Patel wrote… You believe Ruth Williams’ death to have been a spontaneous event, but I do not accept that there are no lessons to be learned here.

A Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) is a multi-agency review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by a person to whom they were related or with whom they were, or had been, in an intimate personal relationship, or a member of the same household as themselves. Since 13 April 2011 there has been a statutory requirement for local areas to conduct a DHR following a domestic homicide that meets the criteria.

Since April 2011, in excess of 400 DHRs have been completed, according to government documents.

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