Female Victims of Homicide - 2021
Keywords
Female, Victim, Homicide, Investigating, Accused, Perpetrator, Age, Race, Ethnicity, Reports, Convictions, Femicide.
Publication Number
PUB 1476
FOI Reference Number
16593
Request Title
Female Victims of Homicide - 2021
Date Range
01 January 2021 to 31 December 2021
Information Requested:
Please could you provide us with a list of all female victims of homicide killed between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021 (inclusive) which your authority has been responsible for investigating and, for each victim:
1. the date of the homicide;
2. the names of the victims and the accused / perpetrator;
3. the age of the victim;
4. the ethnicity/race of the victim;
5. the relationship between the accused and the victim;
6. the sex of the accused / perpetrator;
7. the ethnicity/race of the perpetrator;
8. if identified, the way in which the victim was killed;
Also, if possible, we would appreciate the following information.
9. whether there were any previous reports from the victim (or any third party) regarding the accused / perpetrator; and
10. whether there were any previous reports and / or convictions of any other offences related to violence against women perpetrated by the accused / perpetrator.
However, if you are unable to provide information on points 8 and 9, please provide information on the first seven points only.
I understand that at times, information we request is already available in the public domain. However, to ensure information in the Femicide Census is robust, verifiable and useful in turn as a learning tool for the police, we kindly ask that your force provides us with the information directly, without redirecting us to news sites or weblinks.
Further to this, please note it is not possible nor correct to establish the race/ethnicity of a victim from publicly available information, such as news reports. I therefore kindly request that race/ethnicity is always only provided by your force.
Our intention is to develop the Femicide Census (including by populating it with reliable data of the kind that you can provide us with) so that it can be used to analyse patterns in fatal male violence towards women. Our work on the Femicide Project has received widespread press coverage and interest from third parties. Previous Femicide Census reports are available at:
https://femicidescensus.org/reports/
Disclosure with Exemptions
Part Disclosure with Section 21 Exemption
Information Correct as at
08 August 2022
Date of Disclosure
06 September 2022
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16593 Response
FOI Duty
First Duty – Essex Police does hold information relating to your request.
Second Duty – See below information
Fact – The table below identifies victims where details are already within the public domain and therefore the information is reasonably accessible by other means.
Exemption – Section 21
Reasoning - Section 21 of the Act (Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means) states that information is exempt information if it is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under Section 1 of the FOIA. Section 21 is an absolute exemption and where information falls within the scope of an absolute exemption, a public authority is not obliged to communicate it to an applicant and is also not obliged to comply with the duty to confirm or deny the existence of the information requested.
Outside of the act and in an effort to assist we can provide the following links and information:
Caveat – The below data is correct as at 08/08/2022.
Between 01 January 2021 and 31 December 2021 there has been seven female homicides.
| Date of Homicide | Victim Age | Victim Ethnicity | Victim Gender | Suspect Ethnicity | Suspect Gender | Relationship Victim/Suspect |
| 22/06/2021 | 90 | Female | Female | Mother/DAUGHTER | ||
| 03/07/2021 | 67 | White British | Female | White British | Male | Mother/SON |
| 20/08/2021 | 53 | White British | Female | |||
| 11/11/2021 | 22 | White British | Female | |||
| 10/04/2021 | 68 | White British | Female | White British | Male | SPOUSE |
| 24/04/2021 | 40 | White British | Female | UNKNOWN | ||
| 17/01/2021 | 22 | White American | Female | White British | Male | PARTNER |
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
The Force Information Management Board, chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable has oversight of the Force wide programme of work to improve the quality of Force data. This work has identified data quality leads in all key areas of the business including the Crime and Public Protection Command. Liaison between the Force Data Quality Team and the Crime and Public Protection Command lead for data quality will identify and resolve issues through a variety of mechanisms to ensure regular and appropriate supervisory oversight.
In addition to the above, Essex Police can neither confirm nor deny other information is held by virtue of the following exemptions:
Question 8: This is asking for extremely sensitive information about how the victim was killed. This is something that may only be known by the SIO, their team and the offender. Therefore, Exemption under s30(1)(a) Investigations and s38(1) apply.
Questions 9 and 10: Essex Police will neither confirm nor deny as to whether any previous reports were made by the victim, or any third party, regarding the accused/perpetrator or any other offences relating to violence against women by the accused/perpetrator. Therefore exemption under s40(5) Personal Information; s30(3) Investigations and s31(3) Law Enforcement apply. Essex Police would never confirm whether an individual has reported a crime or a suspect has a previous conviction unless there is a genuine law enforcement purpose to do so.
Harm in complying with s1(1)(a) – to confirm or not whether information is held
The applicant is asking specifically within questions 9&10 for information (aka intelligence) that has been provided to the Police Service in confidence by individuals. The public expect police forces and other law enforcement agencies to use all powers and tactics available to them in their endeavour to prevent and detect crime or disorder and maintain public safety. There are a number of tactics available for gathering intelligence including, as in this case, recorded information that is provided by members of the public when they contact Essex Police of their own volition.
The College of Police APP Information Management Module is a national standard adhered to by all police forces across England and Wales. Police Information refers to all information obtained, recorded or processed for a policing purpose and includes information which is processed (known as data, including personal data) and information which has been subject to a process of evaluation (known as intelligence).
It is a business process with an intention to provide focus to operational police and to achieve a disproportionately greater impact from the resources applied to any problem. It is dependent on a clear framework of analysis of information and intelligence allowing a problem solving approach to law enforcement and crime prevention techniques.
The Police Service would never confirm or deny whether information has been supplied by members of the public relating to a named individual or not, whoever that individual may be, unless there is genuine operational reason to do so. If Essex Police reveals information, by confirming information is held (by citing an exemption) or, conversely, stating no information is held, that in itself reveals information about a named individual and would undermine the above APP.
In addition, the flow of information (intelligence) into Essex Police could be compromised which would have an impact on our ability to collect reliable and accurate intelligence resulting in more costly and time consuming methods of collecting information. In addition confirmation or denial has potential to undermine ongoing operations, investigations as well as any future judicial process.
Finally, and more importantly, any disclosure which would undermine an investigation would also compromise the health and safety of an individual placing them in danger.
Public Interest Considerations
Section 30
Factors favouring complying with s1(1)(a)
Confirming or denying whether information exists relevant to this request would lead to a better informed general public by identifying that Essex Police robustly investigate crime. This fact alone may encourage individuals to provide intelligence in order to assist with investigations and promote public trust in providing transparency and demonstrating openness and accountability into where the police are currently focusing their investigations.
Factors against complying with Section 1(1)(a)
Confirmation or denial that information is held would suggest Essex Police take their responsibility to appropriately handle and manage intelligence supplied to them flippantly.
Under FOI there is a requirement to comply with s1(1)(a) and confirm that information is held. In some cases it is that confirmation, or not, which could disclose facts which would undermine the investigative process and in such cases Essex Police takes advantage of its ability under FOI legislation to, where appropriate, neither confirm nor deny that information is or is not held.
Irrespective of what information is or isn’t held regarding questions 8&9, any information which could be used to undermine prosecutions or aid offenders is not in the public interest.
Section 31 Law Enforcement
Factors favouring complying with Section 1(1)(a) confirming information is held
Violence against women is an extremely emotive subject, even more so in the current climate following the tragic murder of Sarah Everard. There are lot of protests and campaigning ongoing into this subject as well as a vast amount of journalistic material in the public domain and this in itself favours confirmation or denial. Please see below examples:
Factors against complying with Section 1(1)(a) neither confirming nor denying that information is held
Essex Police has a duty of care to the community at large and public safety is of paramount importance. If an FOI disclosure reveals information to the world by not adopting an NCND position, this action would compromise the effective delivery of operational law enforcement as detailed in the harm above.
Essex Police relies on information being supplied by the public. Irrespective of what information is or is not held, by applying substantive exemptions would indicate that information is held and therefore reveal personal information about an individual. Such action would act as a deterrent to the public to provide intelligence to the force and would not be in the public interest.
Balance Test
The points above highlight the merits of confirming or denying that information pertinent to questions 8-10 exists. The Police Service relies heavily on the public and other law enforcement agencies providing information. The public has an expectation that any information they provide will be treated with confidence and in line with the APP Information Management Module. Anything which places that confidence at risk, no matter how generic, would undermine any trust or confidence other agencies and individuals have in the Police Service.
The effective delivery of operational law enforcement takes priority and is at the forefront of Essex Police to ensure the prevention and detection of crime is carried out and the effective apprehensive or prosecution of offenders is maintained.
Therefore, at this moment in time, it is our opinion that for these issues the balance test for Neither Confirming Nor Denying that information is held for questions 8-10 is appropriate in this case.
Section 38 Health and safety
Consideration must be given to disclosure that would, or would be likely to harm the physical or mental health of any individual, or endanger the safety of any individual. Careful consideration is given to family members and friends of the victim and potential harm, particularly if they are unaware of the circumstances of the event.
Section 40(5) Personal Information
Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation is intended to promote openness and accountability in public authorities. However, this openness relates more to information about the authority and its workings than it does to individuals who have been in contact with that authority. This is especially the case when the public authority in question is a Police Force, as the majority of personal information that we hold is sensitive in nature. Disclosure is to the world and not just between the applicant and ourselves.
Essex Police’s view is that confirming or denying information is held, could highlight activity relating to one or more identifiable living individuals and therefore breach the data protection principles set out in the UK GDPR. The exemption at Section 40(5)(a)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) is, therefore, engaged and in accordance with Section 17(4), this correspondence must act as a refusal notice to comply with your request.
Please note that this is a standard response that would be issued on receipt of any FOI request that could relate to an individual and this response should not be taken to infer that information is held, further information on the UK GDPR can be found on the Guide to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) | ICO.