Met reviews family killings

A major review of the killings of husbands, wives and partners in and around London over the past year has been ordered by the Government

Amid mounting concern over domestic violence, the Met has been asked to re-examine dozens of cases of murder or manslaughter over the last 12 months to see if more can be done to prevent such tragedies.

Solicitor General Harriet Harman has also instructed the Crown Prosecution Service to carry out a pilot study around the rest of the country to investigate whether there are emotional triggers which the cases have in common.

About a quarter of murders are domestic, but there has been no detailed British study of the flashpoints which lead up to the attacks.

Ms Harman said: "All the evidence shows that, apart from the tragedy for the victim, the children are nearly always damaged, either by being caught up in the violence or by being abused by one of the partners. Inquests establish the cause of death and criminal trials find out who is guilty of murder or manslaughter, but there is a separate issue of how couples get to that situation. It might be the case that lots of people know different parts of the jigsaw, and it could have been prevented."

In the past year, there have been some high- profile cases of domestic tragedies, such as that of Pc Karl Bluestone, 36, of Gravesend, Kent. He bludgeoned his wife Jill to death with a hammer and killed their two younger children last August after Jill threatened to leave him. He then hanged himself. An inquest heard that Bluestone had been arrested twice following violent family disputes, but he had never been formally disciplined or charged. Social services had also decided the children were not at risk.

Police are aware that a number of the murders they are looking at were completely unpredictable. But they want to build up a risk-assessment system, to help social workers, teachers and police identify an escalation in violence. One of the key triggerpoints appears to be the moment in a family breakdown where the mother threatens to leave the family home with her children.

The Met is working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to find out case histories. A network of special prosecutors who deal exclusively with domestic violence is also being built up.

In London, there were 48 domestic homicides last year, representing 24 per cent of all killings. The latest figures show there were six such homicides in March this year and another four in April. Police will review all the killings between April 2001 and March this year which involved a relationship, between both married and unmarried couples, and gay partners. About 20 of these will be looked at in great depth to see if patterns build up in the cases.