It has emerged that a victim of domestic violence had her phone taken away from her, leaving her without a mode for communication a week before she was murdered.
44-year-old hairdresser, Katrina O'Hara was stabbed to death at her hair salon by her ex-boyfriend, Stuart Thomas, 49, a week after he was freed on bail following his arrest for harassing her. It is said that her family blamed the police cuts for her death.
Th police arrested Thomas on suspicion of harassment on 30th December 2015. However, the police took O'Hara's mobile phone away to check for any threatening messages which made her feel “afraid and vulnerable”. She was murdered eight days later with a kitchen knife in her salon in Blandford Forum, Dorset in January 2016.
Thomas has been convicted or murder and imprisoned for a minimum of 26 years.
Katrina O'Hara's family expressed how their faith in the police system had been “shaken to the core, while also blamed the police cuts for the lack of training given to police officers dealing with domestic abuse cases.
The College of Policing will be revising its recent published domestic abuse advice. An acting police sergeant has been given “management advice” over his inadequacy in O'Hara's case, while a detective constable was issued with a written warning.
