I'm Rebecca, the bereaved daughter of a much loved and musically-talented, Mum. My Mum taught music and played professionally all her life.  I am fighting for justice for her, following her untimely death in July 2020.

I'm a registered nurse and health visitor. I feel domestic abuse is a Public Health matter - often leading to chronic poor physical and mental health of both victims and their families.

Summary of my case

My Mum died an unnatural death at the age of 85. She died following a series of continued failings by the State and associated agencies over a period of 10 years.

She needed protecting from neglect and domestic abuse in her own home. I believe the State failed in their duty to protect my Mum. She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and lacked capacity to make decisions for herself and to keep herself safe. She was repeatedly left at risk and suffered numerous incidents of domestic abuse and harm.

I believe that, because she was an older woman, the domestic abuse she endured went largely unrecognised. As a result, her case repeatedly fell through agencies nets that were supposed to protect her.

I struggled, unsuccessfully, to explain the danger to her life from domestic abuse and coercive control to the many state agencies involved in her care.

She was repeatedly left at risk by the very agencies that had duties to protect her - the Court of Protection, Local Authority, NHS, Police and a dementia charity.

These agencies repeatedly failed to recognise and respond appropriately to clear signs of domestic abuse of an older woman. 

Their response instead, was to scapegoat and vilify me, her daughter. I was trying to help them recognise what was going on - that they were being manipulated by the perpetrators of the domestic abuse.

Following her untimely and avoidable death, Mum was denied justice by an unreliable pathologist. Their post-mortem report concluded her death was by 'natural causes', preventing an official inquest being opened for a full year following her death.

I had to resort to a private post-mortem to show what really happened. This new pathologist's report has shown the original report to be highly inaccurate. There is now an Inquest into Mum's death, finally granted by the Coroner.

Call To Action

I've spent the last year fighting this injustice and trying to get an inquest for my Mum. As a result I have incurred significant legal costs.

We have now successfully persuaded the Coroner to open an inquest, after a year of the Coroner refusing to address the concerns raised by my legal team and the evidence we provided.

To continue the fight for my Mum's justice I need financial support to pay for expert legal advice and representation.

What are we trying to achieve?

This fight for justice for my Mum can bring about significant change:

• Generate public scrutiny of the recognised organisational failings that leave elderly victims of domestic abuse unprotected and at increased risk through ineffective interventions
• Improve agency-wide awareness and training on how the domestic abuse of older victims can remain hidden from view.
• To bring about sustained improvement in public health, domestic abuse being a public health epidemic in our society

I am working closely with organisations whose remit is to raise awareness of the hidden nature of domestic abuse of older victims.

It is recognised that police, local authorities, the NHS and family courts often lack sufficient knowledge and training in domestic abuse. This can lead to further harm to victims when attempts to intervene are ineffective or poorly coordinated.

We're exposing major flaws in the Coroner's system, revealing the potential for miscarriages of justice when flawed pathology reports are used to interfere with inquests and limit police investigations into unnatural deaths of older people.

My Mum's case is far from unique. Other bereaved families share my concerns and require case reviews.

What is the next step in the case?

The Coroner, who relied upon a questionable ‘natural causes’ post-mortem report, has finally opened an inquest into my mother’s death.

There will now be two Pre-Inquest Review hearings, prior to the Full Inquest hearing, to take place later this year.

We anticipate that the outcome of the inquest will likely lead to further scrutiny of the agencies involved, with the potential for litigation, public exposure of organisational failings and raising awareness of the need to overhaul the adult safeguarding system in relation to the protection of older people from the effects of domestic abuse.

How much are we raising and why?

I'm looking initially to raise £3500.

This will help meet some of the significant costs I have already incurred during the failed family court proceedings and a year of challenging the Coroner’s choice of pathologist and refusal to open an inquest.

To support the inquest process we will likely require an additional £40,000, for which we will need to continue to fund raise.

Thank you for your support to bring justice not only for my Mum, but also for other victims of domestic abuse.