EVAW statement on the murder of Carol, Hannah and Louise Hunt

Andrea Simon, Executive Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said:

“The horrifying murders of Carol, Hannah and Louise Hunt in their family home have once again put violence against women and girls on the public agenda. Our thoughts are with their surviving family members, community and all who are feeling the weight of the details being reported.

Whenever we are confronted by shocking acts of male violence against women, there is a temptation to reach for ‘quick fix’ measures like calls to ban a particular weapon, increasing CCTV coverage or providing more street lighting. But none of these measures will ever stop perpetrators intent on harming women, as they don’t get to the root cause of the issue, which is the normalisation of women’s inequality and the male entitlement, power and control it produces.

No one wakes up one day and decides to kill a woman out of nowhere. Fatal domestic abuse is almost always part of a pattern of offending. We need to see more resourcing and prioritisation of early intervention, as well as a whole-society approach to preventing violence against women which includes education and campaigns to tackle the attitudes that drive it.

The media has an important role to play in shaping our collective attitudes –  we’re disturbed that in 2024, we’re continuing to see headlines describing the perpetrator as a ‘nice guy’. These reports build sympathy for perpetrators and often try to justify their actions. But the reality is that violence against women is perpetrated by men in our communities and living otherwise ordinary lives. A woman is killed by a current or former partner every 3 days, and 1 in 4 experience domestic abuse across their lives, so it is vital that as a society we shift this narrative so that we are better able to identify abuse, support victims and prevent men from murdering women.”

ENDS

Media contact

Sinead Geoghegan, Head of Communications, media@evaw.org.uk