Mum demands sentence reform after daughter's murder

Gail Smith said her daughter Elinor O'Brien was "loving and headstrong"

The mother of a woman who was killed by her abusive boyfriend is calling for the government to change the way killers who strike behind closed doors are sentenced.

Gail Smith said there was a “shocking disparity” of 10 years between minimum sentences for killings that happen in a home and those that take place in public.

Her 22-year-old daughter Elinor O'Brien was stabbed by her partner in a Manchester flat in 2022.

Kevin Mannion, 45, was jailed for a minimum of 23 years for murder and other offences, including coercive behaviour.

"Black and blue" plaques have been made to mark the deaths of women killed in domestic attacks

Ms Smith told BBC Breakfast: "Had he stabbed Elli outside of the apartment in the communal hallway, the starting point would be 25 years, and then the sentence would go up from there.

"If someone is stabbed within a home from a knife from their own knife block, the starting point is 15 years."

She called for the gap to be "corrected".

A Home Office representative said the government planned to "halve the level of violence against women and girls within the next decade".

"This begins with improving policing and the criminal justice system, relentlessly pursuing dangerous offenders and providing sustained support for victims," the spokesman added.

A minimum 25-year sentence was introduced in 2020 for murderers who carried a weapon to the scene of the crime.

Ms Smith said it was "brought in with the best of intentions because of knife crime… however, what it created was a disparity".

Gail Smith (fourth from left) described bereaved families' experiences as being "a member of a club you never wanted to join"

Along with the organisation Killed Women, which represents families of women killed by men, she wants the prime minister to continue the previous government’s commitment to change the law on domestic homicide, which has a minimum 15-year sentence.

A 2023 government consultation said "about 90 people – overwhelmingly women – are killed by their current or ex-partner" every year.

Ms Smith said: "It's often a woman stabbed within her own home after perhaps many years of abuse and stabbed multiple times, which is often a feature in domestic murders."

The Home Office has described violence against women and girls as a "national emergency” and says it will pursue preventative and educational measures to tackle causes.

It has also said domestic abuse experts will be introduced in 999 control rooms so victims can talk directly to a specialist.

'You mourn what you've lost'

Ms Smith described her daughter as "beautiful", adding "she was very loving, very headstrong".

The Killed Women group recently introduced "black and blue plaques" to mark victims' deaths, in reference to the description "beaten black and blue".

"When you mourn and grieve, you grieve what might have been," Ms Smith said. "And you grieve the fact they never get to live their lives and have children.

"That's the hardest bit - you mourn what you've lost."