We failed murder victim 18 TIMES, say police
POLICE have apologised to the mother of murder victim Louise Aitchison after they uncovered 18 failures surrounding her death.
Miss Aitchison, 33, was killed by her partner Daryll Paterson at her home in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, last year.
She died after calling police begging for help and lay undiscovered at her flat for two days, despite six visits from officers.
Last week, senior officers visited her mother, Caroline Lyons, and during an hour-long meeting apologised for the catastrophic series of failures that contributed to her daughter’s death and delayed the discovery of her murder.
Paterson, 36, was incorrectly categorised as a ‘borderline’ risk, said Miss Lyons, despite previous convictions for domestic abuse against former partners.
She said: ‘The officers said when Louise called them it was flagged up as a borderline case.’
She added that Paterson’s pending charges were also not disclosed to her daughter when she called police on the night of her death on April 28 last year. Miss Aitchison phoned the emergency services at 10.45pm after asking Paterson to leave her flat and told police he had threatened to come back for his belongings.
He then returned just over an hour after the call and attempted to strangle her, before slitting her throat. Miss Lyons says she has struggled to come to terms with her daughter’s horrific death and says she is ‘haunted’ by the image of her alone.
She told the Sunday Post: ‘That has always haunted me, Louise lying on her own for two days and us not knowing what had happened to her. It’s something that I’ll never get over.’
Immediately after the murder, Paterson embarked on a 48-hour drink and drugs binge, during which he repeatedly tried to turn himself in. He confessed to a ‘serious offence’ via a 999 call and was taken by police to Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride, but released following an assessment. The next day he gave himself up again.
Following a court hearing in January, he was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder.
Campaigners have pointed to
Paterson’s past and questioned how he slipped through the net. In 2016 and 2017, he was fined £300 and £265 respectively, for offences against previous partners.
MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow Dr Lisa Cameron said better safeguards are needed to protect victims. She said: ‘It is truly appalling a catalogue of 18 failures have been identified in Louise’s case, making it abundantly clear those exposed to domestic violence don’t have robust systems in place.’
A police spokesman said: ‘We have met privately with Louise’s family to offer our condolences.’