Inquest opens into death of tragic Cherylee
AN inquest has been launched into the c i rcumstances surrounding the brutal murder of successful businesswoman Cherylee Shennan.
The Rawtenstall mum was stabbed to death outside her home on Hardman Avenue by convicted killer Paul O’Hara in March 2014 in front of police officers who had been called to investigate reports of domestic abuse.
O’Hara was p re v i o u s l y given a life sentence in 1998 for
killing ex-partner Janine Waterworth but was released on licence in 2012 and was subject to supervision and monitoring by the National Probation Service when he murdered Cherylee.
A jury at Preston Coroners Court will consider whether there were any failings by the authorities before Cherylee’s death and will hear from police, probation and social services over the next four weeks.
Coroner James Newman has identified several issues that are to be considered by the
jury, including whether there was sufficient assessment of the risks O’Hara posed to others, monitoring of his licence and monitoring of his drug and alcohol use.
Giving evidence at the inquest on Wednesday, Cherylee’s family spoke about the violence and domestic abuse she suffered at the hands of O’Hara in the months before her death.
In one incident, before Bonfire Night 2013, Cherylee suffered a broken nose and black eye but initially claimed to have fallen down the stairs while drinking and wearing high heels.
On March 1, 2014, Cherylee told how she had been ‘knocked about’ by O’Hara and had suffered a broken cheekbone and jaw.
In a statement from her step-father Jonathan Roberts, he said Cherylee ‘refused to get police involved’ and that she ‘wanted to deal with it in her own way’.
Chiyvonne Shennan said when her sister Cherylee started a relationship with O’Hara he ‘ came across as a big cuddly teddy bear who made her smile’ and she ‘never saw him lose his temper’.
Cherylee also denied that O’Hara had attacked her before Bonfire Night 2013.
But later she started to ‘drop hints that things were not right between them’.
The inquest heard that O’Hara was not happy with Cherylee keeping in contact with her ex-partner Graham Leach and that he became ‘paranoid, resentful and jealous’ and ‘wanted to kill’ Mr Leach.
Chiyvonne said she had a five-hour phone conversation with Cherylee where she told how O’Hara had headbutted her, breaking her nose and fracturing her jaw, and that she had also been held hostage at knifepoint. The inquest heard how in another incident O’Hara punched Cherylee during an argument, knocking her unconscious, and when she woke up O’Hara was ‘calmly sleeping’.
When O’Hara woke up and she asked him why he left her like that he said “I thought you were dead. I didn’t know what to do.”
In a victim impact statement read to the jury, Chiyvonne said O’Hara’s history of violence against women was ‘not normal’ and ‘feels the risks should have been picked up on’.
She said Cherylee struggled with her mental health in the months before her murder and ‘feels let down by people who should have recognised the situation’.
The inquest was told that on March 2, 2014, Cherylee told Mr Leach that she had ‘made up’ the claims against O’Hara and said it was an ‘attempt to get back at him’ because she ‘believed he was being unfaithful’.