Domestic Homicide Reviews are carried out to ensure that lessons are learnt when a person has been killed as a result of domestic violence. The Home Office multi-agency statutory guidance defines a Domestic Homicide Review as a review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over, has or appears to have resulted from violence, abuse or neglect by:
- a person whom he/she was related or had been in an intimate personal relationship, or
- a member of the same household
The purpose of a Domestic Homicide Review is to:
- Establish what lessons are to be learned from the domestic homicide regarding the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims
- Identify clearly what those lessons are both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted on, and what is expected to change as a result
- Apply those lessons to service responses including changes to policies and procedures as appropriate
- Prevent domestic violence homicide and improve service responses for all domestic violence victims and their children through improved intra and inter-agency working
To date, only one such review has been undertaken in Havant, this was a very sad case involving an elderly couple. The review found that this tragic case could not have been predicted; there is no recorded evidence of domestic abuse in the relationship prior to the incident. Learning from this review may help to more swiftly identify cases of domestic abuse especially within a caring relationship in future, but there is not an identified course of action that could have prevented this death.
The full review has been shared with relevant parties but a summary with learning points can be found below.
- Domestic Homicide Review: Executive Summary >> (PDF 67KB)
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