Officer rejected abuse claim prior to murder

A POLICE officer told officials he did not believe a woman’s abuse claim weeks before she was stabbed to death by her ex-partner, a coroner heard on Friday.

Angela Mittal, 41, was stabbed almost 60 times by her partner, Laurens Brand, on Boxing Day in 2018.

Ms Mittal had seen a solicitor on Dec 3 to discuss a divorce.

Brand admitted the murder and was jailed for a minimum of 16 years and eight months the following May.

An 11-day jury inquest hearing is set to take place to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ms Mittal’s death in July of this year.

Sophie Naftalin, counsel for the family, spoke yesterday of Angela’s call to police regarding Brand’s abuse towards her. Ms Mittal, of Parker Close, Shinfield, Berkshire, called police on November 29 of that year after she said her husband punched her.

Ms Naftalin said yesterday that a police officer told Wokingham Borough Council that he “did not believe” Ms Mittal after her report of Brand’s abuse.

The family lawyer also said the officer had described Ms Mittal as “weird”.

A pre-inquest review held on November 1 of last year revealed concerns regarding Thames Valley Police’s conduct in their treatment of Ms Mittal.

At a previous hearing, a lawyer who was then representing the family stated that there were concerns that Mrs Mittal’s race and gender impacted the way she was treated by Thames Valley police. He said: “Thames Valley Police [have their own] concerns about their officers response to Angela’s reports.

“They indicated there was an inadequate response by their front-line officers to understand what was being reported. Why that happened is a concern to this inquest.

“It may be this happened because of a lack of training or involves making a mistake or involves incompetence. It may suggest that nothing was wrong… but one credible explanation as to why they didn’t respond adequately was because of her gender and race.

“If their response had been adequate it’s arguable the outcome may have been different.”

At the Nov 1 hearing, the family also had concerns regarding a lack of disclosure by nursery staff. The court previously heard that Ms Mittal had disclosed to the staff that she was being abused.

Brand stabbed Ms Mittal in the neck and chest and claimed he used two different knives during the murder.

There were 59 wounds in total, 11 to the head and neck, 20 to the torso, and 28 to the upper arms.