Poppy Devey Waterhouse: Father's Alps cycle in daughter's memory

Poppy Devey Waterhouse was "world-embracing" and "amazing", her family and friends said

The father of a murdered woman has taken on a gruelling charity challenge in her memory.

Rupert Waterhouse, 60, from Frome, is cycling across the French Alps in memory of Poppy Devey Waterhouse.

The 24-year-old was killed by her ex-partner, Joe Atkinson, in a flat they shared in Leeds. He was jailed for a minimum of nearly 16 years.

Her mum, Julie Devey, and Mr Waterhouse both now campaign to help others affected by domestic homicide.

Mr Waterhouse embarked on the two-week cycling challenge on 21 August and will also pedal across the Italian Dolomites.

Mr Waterhouse cycles with a Poppy symbol on his kit in memory of his daughter

He is tackling two back-to-back events of the renowned amateur Haute Route cycling series while raising money for Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA).

Mr Waterhouse has raised more than £8,000 so far. He said: "That money is not me raising it, it is the effect [Poppy] had and has on people.

"Every photo of her she's smiling, a big open smile, that's what she had. She included everyone in everything."

Julie Devey, 59, from Frome, Somerset, is campaigning for longer sentencing for perpetrators of domestic homicide alongside Carole Gould, mother of murdered Ellie, 17 from Calne, Wiltshire.

Atkinson attacked Ms Devey Waterhouse with a kitchen knife at the flat they shared in Leeds.

Currently, if the crime occurs in the home, the perpetrator will automatically face a lesser sentence whereas the same murder committed in the street receives 10 years' more prison time.

If the domestic murderer uses a weapon found at the home rather than bringing one with him, the tariff is 15 years, as the crime is seen as without premeditation. A murderer who brings the weapon will receive 25 years.

The two mothers say for murders committed inside a home where the offender finds a weapon, offenders should also get a minimum of 25 years.

A review is currently being conducted by Clare Wade QC and Ms Devey hopes it will go before the government soon.

The current guidelines are "disgusting, degrading and not right", she said, adding she will "keep banging the drum" for tougher sentences.

Julie Devey with her daughter Poppy on the last Mother's Day before she was killed

Poppy, a quantitative trading analyst, was described as a "prodigiously gifted mathematician", and her death has left "a loud, often screaming, empty space", Mr Waterhouse said.

Mr Waterhouse added the support AAFDA provide is invaluable as it connects other families who have gone through a domestic homicide.

"I'm not a great person for joining groups, having therapy and that sort of stuff. I just work through it - I cycle in the mountains and shout when I get to the top," he said.

"But often the best thing you can do is just be with other people who are in the same position. Because they are the only ones who can begin to understand," he said.

"Even if people don't donate, even if they read it, and be more aware and if it just helps one person be steered away from that end then that's a result."

Julie Devey said Poppy was a "loyal friend'

He said: "You have to educate men when they are young. You read that 149 women were killed in 2018, not all domestic but about 80% were. Even if it was one, it's one too many.

"That's two or three a week and it's a result of men thinking they can do it, that they have a right to do that somehow.

"People say to me, 'Oh, Poppy would be so proud', but I don't want her to be proud, I want her to be here.

"I shouldn't be doing this but I was thinking coming down a mountain today, they are right because she was that sort of person, she would have been very proud of me."