GRIEVING MUM IS CAMPAIGNING FOR
CHANGE FOR VICTIMS OF ABUSE
THE mother of Bethany Rae Fields, 21, who was stabbed to death by an exboyfriend in Huddersfield, says there needs to be change in the way police deal with reports.
Pauline Jones paid tribute to Bethany as she talked about how she thought the police had failed to keep her daughter safe. Bethany was stabbed to death by Paul Crowther in 2019 in Huddersfield after she had reported him to the police for sending threatening messages to her.
Now, Pauline has said Bethany “was failed right from the start” by the police.
Pauline has also paid tribute to Bethany, saying: “Bethany was my whole world, my life, my daughter, my only child and my very, very best friend.
“She was a beautiful, beautiful soul inside and out. Full of good humour, very caring, warm, kind, giving, polite, friendly, the list just goes on.
“She was empathic and altruistic and just very, very, very loving.”
Bethany was also described as “genuine” and “full of life” as well as “highly intelligent”. Pauline added that it “hurts every day” and that she is hoping to try to get “justice” for Bethany, which she feels she was denied.
Pauline said the probationary officer Bethany was assigned after going to the police with her concerns about Crowther was not properly supervised, according to a report from the IOPC.
She said: “The sad thing is, my daughter came out her first time believing that they’d taken her seriously and they didn’t.”
She added that the DASH Risk Assessment for Bethany’s case was not signed off by senior officers which the IOPC report states must be signed. According to Pauline, there was a “catalogue of errors” which led to the murder and at one point, Crowther even went missing which left Bethany afraid of what he could do.
Pauline added: “She was not being taken seriously, she was not being believed. At every opportunity her voice wasn’t listened to because when he [Crowther] went missing, she found out he was caught by the police in Blackpool and when the policeman was on the phone, she was trying again to say he must be taken off the streets due to his mental health and his past history.” Pauline said the police did not offer Bethany a safe room, instead telling her to call 999 if Crowther ever turned up.
Crowther had made a number of accusations against Bethany at a police station, and even made more on the day she was murdered by him. According to Pauline, if they had taken action on these they could have at least taken her off the streets to investigate, and she would have been safe.
According to Pauline it would have only taken a few phone calls from the police to people who knew her for police to clear her. Pauline went on to say: “On the very day that she died, she