Missed opportunities contributed to mum’s murder

CORONER HIGHLIGHTS FAILINGS LEADING UP TO KILLING

A NOTTINGHAM coroner said “missed opportunities” had “significantly contributed” to the murder of a mum-of-six.

A two-week inquest into the death of Janet Scott at Nottingham Council House concluded yesterday.

Coroner Jonathan Straw described how opportunities had been missed by a probation officer to protect the mum-of-six from the man who took her life.

Simon Mellors, 56, of North Sherwood Street, had already posed a threat to women.

He beat and strangled to death his former partner Pearl Black in 1999 before being released on licence in early 2014, despite struggling to take responsibility for his violent behaviour during prison workshops.

In January 2018, Mellors went on to murder again; he killed Arnold mum-of-six Mrs Scott after she ended their relationship just after Christmas.

Mrs Scott, 51, had complained about Mellors’ controlling behaviour to her counsellor.

She said Mellors had tattooed her name across his chest and demanded she do the same.

He tried to get a job at the same Lidl supermarket in Arnold and asked bosses to change his shift pattern so he could work alongside her.

She also complained to his probation officer that he had been following her to work at 4am and even waited outside in the days before her death.

The inquest heard how these incidents “mirrored” the events which led to him committing the first murder and the probation service should have triggered a multi-agency response.

This, the inquest heard, would have brought in the police and could have seen Mellors recalled to prison as he would have breached the conditions of his licence.

But this did not happen, as his probation officer never acted on the concerning information he received from Mrs Scott.

Police even told the inquest they could have arrested Mellors if they had been

informed.

Instead, he went on to stab Mrs Scott at her Nursery Road home before dragging her into his car and driving her into the city centre.

She managed to escape in Peel Street and flag down a council traffic warden.

Mellors got back into his Volkswagen Golf and drove the car into them both. Mellors instantly killed Mrs Scott and seriously injured the council officer.

He took his life at Strangeways Prison in Manchester before the case even went to court.

The conditions of Mellors’ licence meant he had to divulge his past conviction to any future partners and any worrying behaviour could have meant a recall to prison.

The inquest heard how Mellors had breached his conditions a number of times.

However, no warnings, sanctions, or calls to the police were made by his probation officer Andrew Victor.

He blamed “the volume of work” when he gave evidence and that Mellors had always complied.

Mrs Scott had asked in August 2017 when she started to worry about the man she had decided to date: “Do you think he will reoffend? I need to know your opinion – it is my life too.”

Mr Victor replied: “No, I don’t think he will.”

Coroner Mr Straw said Janet died as a result of a “planned” attack carried out by Mellors.

Delivering his verdict, Mr Straw said: “Simon Mellors had a number of clearly defined risk factors.

“His offender manager was fully aware of those risks and the relevant triggers for them.

“The relationship with Janet Scott was certainly over by January 12, 2018.

“From January 17, Simon Mellors exhibited a number of concerning and reported stalking behaviours.

“Those behaviours in the context of the breakdown of his relationship with Janet significantly increased his risk of causing significant harm to Janet.

“I am determined that the period from January 19 to January 25 was a critical period during which interventions to the safeguarding of Janet should have occurred.

“With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that a number of opportunities were missed by the offender manager during the critical period.

“This is when the imminent risk to Janet should have been realised and acted upon.

“No additional safeguarding actions were considered or initiated.

“The offender manager during the critical period placed insufficient weight on the information given to him by Janet about Simon Mellors’ stalking behaviour.

“He failed to identify the behaviours of being of concern.

“He failed to regard the behaviours as stalking behaviours which could have given rise to police intervention and prosecution.

“The offender manager throughout the critical period placed too much reliance on the effectiveness of his own personal authority to manage Simon Mellors’ risk.

“He was too accepting – it was perceptive bias on the part of the offender manager by Simon Mellors’ past compliance.

“No safeguarding actions for Janet were ever considered.

“These missed opportunities, on a balance of probabilities, have made a significant contribution to Janet’s death.”

He said Mr Victor was working with a case load “significantly higher than it should have been” and he had complained to bosses that he was “overwhelmed and stressed”.

He said this would have impacted on the quality of his decision making, but added: “I am not of the view that work pressures affected or contributed to the failure of (Mr Victor) to escalate risk during the critical period.

“It undoubtedly impacted to a degree on early decisions and assessments.”

He recorded the medical cause of death as catastrophic multiple injuries and the verdict as unlawful killing by murder.

Following the inquest, Chief Probation Officer Sonia Flynn CBE said: “This was a truly horrific crime and the decision-making was well below what I expect of an experienced probation officer, for which I sincerely apologise to Janet Scott’s family.

“Since that dreadful day in 2018, we have introduced specialist training on coercive control and stalking and recruited an extra 1,300 staff into the National Probation Service to help better protect the public.”