West Northamptonshire Labour councillor calls for look at 'wider picture' of violence against women after Sabina Nessa murder

A Labour councillor from West Northamptonshire has called for UK society to take a “real look” at the “wider picture” of violence against women.

Zoe Smith, Labour councillor for Abington and Phippsville, made the comments following the killing of primary school teacher Sabina Nessa by known domestic abuser Koci Selamaj, who was sentenced to 36 years in prison for her murder on Friday (April 8).

The councillor said that current efforts to prevent domestic violence likely do not go deep enough, allowing abusers to get away with less serious behaviours and thus leading to escalations of violence.

This has led to calls for a register of domestic abusers which, it is hoped, will hold abusers accountable before they turn murderous.

Cllr Smith said: “There needs to be a strategy of protection for people who are targeted by domestic partners and recognition of other abuse linked to domestic violence.

"It isn’t something specifically that we’ve looked into locally, but I think it would need to be investigated really carefully how we would apply it. If we had an opportunity to register domestic abusers, we could ensure that domestic violence was taken more seriously.

“We’re already doing a lot of work with domestic violence crimes locally. But it’s something that should be investigated more closely.”

The Cllr also retweeted comments made by Laura Richards, a “Law Changer” on Coercive Control Stalking, who challenged the police’s suggestion that Selamaj had gone from “zero to this murder”. Instead she argued that Selamaj’s past abuses were precursors to the murder.

Cllr Smith said: "It’s really appalling and it’s something as women that we’re particularly aware of the risks of violence against women predominantly, but not exclusively.

"I think with cases like that, they rarely come out of the blue, they never come out of nowhere. We need to understand violence against women and societal attitudes towards it.

"Where there are cases of violence about women, particularly where it’s been domestic violence, we need to look at that pattern of behaviour, like abusive language towards women, to see how it feeds into the bigger picture.

"There needs to be a greater understanding of violence against women rarely comes from nowhere.”