Victims plea on reporting of violence in family home
TWO men whose father shot their mum and sister said the media’s reporting of domestic violence must change.
In July 2016, Ryan and Luke Hart’s dad Lance killed their mother Claire, and younger sister, Charlotte, in the car park of a swimming pool in Spalding, England, before taking his own life.
The brothers say media reports in the wake of the murders added to their trauma.
Speaking at Safe Ireland’s Safe World Summit in Dublin, Luke said: “Press coverage described the murders as ‘rare’ and ‘isolated’ and one even labelled it ‘understandable’.
“Newspapers attempted to explain how a good man killed his family, not that he was a terrorist in clear sight.
“The existing myths were propagated, treating this as an isolated incident, and therefore apparently nothing needed to change, but it’s clear much needed to change, in particular reporting.
“Our father had been searching online about men who kill their families for weeks before and saw media outlets justifying their actions.
“Even close friends of our mother asked if she had an affair, and if she had, as if it would explain what had happened.
“Charlotte was ignored, which showed the control our father had of the narrative, the same control he had throughout our lives.”
Ryan said: “Growing up I never identified as a victim of domestic abuse.
“Our father was unpleasant but never hit us. It felt wrong but we were not empowered to complain because there was no single event we could point to.”