Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Rare motors fund ‘Ferrari of the seas’
– September 17, 2016 – Elizabeth had been at a family party.
Rayner exploded when she returned late to their home in Hanwell, West London.
During a struggle, he began punching her. She picked up the nearest object – a knife on the living room table – and hit him.
But Elizabeth didn’t realise she had stabbed him until he collapsed outside.
She was held for attempted murder and only learned Rayner’s fate later that night when the charge was upgraded to murder.
Having her children kept in care after her acquittal has shattered Elizabeth. She says social services need better training to help victims like her get their kids back.
And Elizabeth slams so-called “victim blaming” which can lead to children being taken off mums who complain of abuse.
HOOP
She adds: “Men get away scotfree even though they’re the perpetrators, and the women have to jump through every hoop. It’s victim blaming.
“They’re saying it’s your fault for getting hit. They say they won’t give me my children back because I could get into another bad relationship – I’m getting blamed. I have always been a good mum. I haven’t made good choices and I feel awful that I have put them through hurt and pain. I know this would all be different if I’d just walked away from that relationship – and I will never tolerate any of that again.”
The account resonates with Sally Challen’s solicitor Harriet Wistrich, co-founder of Justice for Women and director of the Centre for Women’s Justice. She said: “On the one hand there is a failure to adequately protect victims of abuse and prosecute perpetrators, and on the other an overzealous determination to prosecute for murder those driven to kill in consequence of the abuse they have been subjected to.”
Adina Claire, acting chief executive at Women’s Aid, added: “We campaigned for coercive control to be recognised in law. It is at the heart of domestic abuse, yet abuse that is not physical is still not taken seriously enough.”
And American professor Evan Stark, who coined the phrase “coercive control”, said women were too often left powerless.
He said: “For every woman who strikes out against her entrapment like Sally Challen, hundreds are driven to suicide, homelessness or insanity, and thousands more survive without effective recourse.
“Sally Challen’s release should be a signal that the law, and the government behind it, is ready to provide the justice these women deserve.” TWO revolutionary lifeboats, hailed “Ferraris of the sea”, were paid for with the proceeds of two rare sports cars left in a will.
Businessman Richard Colton made the biggest donation the RNLI had ever received when he bequeathed his motors.
His red 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB sold for £6.6m, while his silver 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 fetched £1.93m
The RNLI named one of the boats – used by its crew in Hastings – The Richard and Caroline Colton after their benefactor and his wife.
Richard’s proud godson Charles Denton described the vessel as the “Ferrari of the seas”. Hastings Coxswain Phil Jones said both jet-propelled vessels had “revolutionised allweather lifeboats”.
MUSTANG The P-51 fighter