Mother of murdered University of York student calls for better treatment of abuse victims

The mother of a University of York student who was murdered by her boyfriend has called for a changes in how domestic abuse victims are treated.

Bethany Fields was 21 years old when she was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, Paul Crowther, in a street in Huddersfield in 2019.

Her mother, Pauline Jones, has since set up a campaign in her daughter’s memory, advocating for authorities to act faster to protect abused women seeking help, BBC reports. 

Despite reports to police of the threats made to Bethany and three others in the weeks before her murder, police failed to take necessary safeguarding measures.

West Yorkshire Police said it had apologised to Bethany’s parents for missing “opportunities” to protect her.

The campaign, headed by Pauline, uses Bethany’s initials as an acronym but also stands for Believe, React Fast, as a message for the police and other authorities handling cases of abuse when protecting domestic abuse victims.

Ms Jones said: “My daughter was not believed. They didn’t react and they didn’t do it fast enough.

“If someone of my daughter’s calibre could not make herself believed and listened to, then it’s hard to imagine other women making themselves understood. They need to be taken seriously.”

Besides the police, Bethany had also reported concerns surrounding her wellbeing to her GP.

Crowther had previously been arrested nine times under the Mental Health Act and had previously been violent towards at least two other partners.

A domestic homicide review found a series of missed opportunities to address his behaviour, with his background having “met the definition of a serial perpetrator of domestic abuse” at the time Bethany met him, but “this was not recognised by agencies until after he killed Bethany.”

Most Read

The heartbreaking reason behind Tulisa’s transformation and why she looks so different now

Emma reveals where she and Caspar are now and lots has changed since the MAFS UK reunion

Lacey and Nathan embroiled in nasty feud following ‘bitter rows’ after MAFS UK split

Ms Jones’ campaign (BRF), went on to be mentioned during Prime Minister’s Questions, in which she said she felt the Prime Minister’s response to her case had been “positive” and that adopting BRF would help the government’s pledge to halve domestic violence against women and girls over the next 10 years.

Katie White, Labour MP for Leeds North West, also raised the issue in Parliament saying there needed to be changes in how domestic violence was treated by society and a “cultural shift” to believing victims.

She said: “At the moment the onus is on victims to prove they’re in danger.”

The force responded saying it had changed its approach to domestic abuse since Bethany’s death and had given training to more than 3,000 front line officers and staff to understand how perpetrators operate and to better deal with victims.

In a statement, it said: “We continue to strive to have clearer understanding of perpetrator offending behaviour and making better use of operational information and intelligence to intervene and reduce this.”

Featured image via West Yorkshire Police