NO REVIEW INTO WIFE’S CHIP SHOP DEATH
CAMPAIGNERS LEFT DISAPPOINTED:
AUTHORITIES have decided not to hold a review into the death of a woman who claimed her husband burned her with scalding oil following a row in their chip shop.
Mavis Bran, 69, died from multiorgan failure six days after suffering severe burns to 46% of her body in an incident inside the Chipoteria in Hermon, Carmarthenshire, in October 2018.
Before her death Mrs Bran alleged her husband, Geoffrey Bran, 72, had attacked her with a fryer, but he was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter following a week-long trial in November 2019.
The trial at Swansea Crown Court heard that Mrs Bran told a friend weeks before her death about her husband: “I am frightened. I think he is going to f ****** kill me.”
Last week, a multi-agency group, including Carmarthenshire Council, Hywel Dda Health Board and Dyfedpowys Police said it will not hold a domestic homicide review (DHR) into the circumstances leading up to her death.
DHRS can be launched following an allegation of a domestic homicide to review whether anything about the circumstances of the death can help prevent future incidents involving others and improve service responses for victims.
It is not necessary for someone to be convicted of a homicide for a DHR to take place.
Councillor Ann Davies, chair of Carmarthenshire Safer Communities Partnership, said: “The circumstances around this case have been reconsidered and fully discussed by members of the Safer Communities Partnership.
“As chair of the partnership, I have reviewed these discussions and decisions made previously and have decided that a domestic homicide review will not be undertaken in this case.
“This decision is based on considerations as to whether lessons could be learned or service responses improved within and between agencies, and has been discussed with Mrs Bran’s family.”
Ms Davies said she has instead requested that a “task and finish group” consider and respond to “several key themes where there may be some opportunities for us to improve and strengthen practice across the region”.
It is the second time the group has decided not to launch a DHR, after it said in March it was “revisiting” its original decision not to hold a review.
It was reconsidered after antidomestic abuse campaigners Rachel Williams and Janine Roderick, both from the Safelives charity, expressed their “deep concern” that a review had not been conducted.
An email sent to Ms Roderick earlier this month said the decision was being upheld despite the group noting “that the criteria for triggering a DHR had been met”.
Ms Williams said: “I’m really disappointed. The DHR is not to apportion blame. It’s to give that victim a voice, and I really believe Mavis’s voice is not being heard and this is a missed opportunity to learn lessons from her case.”
Frank Mullane, chief executive of Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) and who campaigned to ensure DHRS became law in 2011, described the latest decision as “puzzling”.
He told PA: “My understanding is that the commissioning body feels there are no lessons to be learned. I cannot understand how one can reach such a conclusion without having taken a thorough look, and that means a thorough look in the community too.”