‘Killed Here’ Plaques Commemorate Murdered Domestic Violence Victims

Back in March, The Guardian wrote a piece about the Killed Women Count, naming 50 women who had already been murdered in 2024 at the hands of violent men. 

Harrowing and tragic. 

But the most jarring and inconceivable statistic within their research was this: 

If a person is killed on the street with just one stab, the minimum sentence is 25 years imprisonment. But if someone is murdered at home, stabbed multiple times, dismembered, the killer’s sentence starts at just 15 years. Owing to the location, the killings aren’t deemed ‘pre meditated’ in the eyes of the law. 

In the case of domestic homicides, the vast majority of victims are women. And their murderers, usually partners or ex partners, had a history of violence and coercive control. 

As a female creative director (with two sisters), led by a female founder (Nikki Collins) at Earnies, with many other brilliant women in our ranks, these issues felt incredibly close to home and all the more pressing to solve. 

And so, the notion of using English Heritage plaques as a visual symbol to talk about domestic homicides, was born. But instead of their iconic blue, they turned ‘black and blue’, bruised and cut. A far cry from their usual celebratory function. 

Armed with a creative concept and a cause, I approached Killed Women. They are an organisation and network supporting the bereaved families of women who were killed by men.

Their answer was an immediate yes. We have to do this. How can we make it happen?

After weeks of conversations, supported and safeguarded by the incredible Killed Women team, seven families bravely stepped forward to tell me their stories.

On one of the most memorable calls of my life, Julie Devey, Steve Willmott, Carole Gould, Ayse Hussein, Anthony & Elaine Newborough and Emma King, told me what had happened to their daughters, sisters and loved ones. How they were murdered. And how unfathomably light the perpetrators sentence was. The final blow after the grief and destruction wrought by their killers.

Every single case involved ‘overkill’.

If their family members had just been killed in the garden, or in the street, a decade more would have been added to the sentence. But instead it happened in their homes, where anyone is meant to feel their most safe. 

We worked together, with Nikki Collins (Earnies’ founder), to forge the lines that have become the backbone of the campaign. “Killed Here. [Sentence]. The same murder outside the home would get a decade more. Murder is murder, change the law.”

Those seven plaques - black, blue and bruised - were then placed on houses across the UK, before being taken to Westminster on September 17th to demand change.

MPs Caroline Nokes, Jess Phillips, Alex Davies-Jones and Jodie Gosling showed their support on the day, talking to the families and media about the pressing need to address this issue. There were emotional scenes, as they embraced the families and offered their condolences. 

In what felt very symbolic, the story came full circle and The Guardian became the first to cover our story. 

It has since been talked about by: The Mirror, Channel 5, ITV News, Glamour, LBC, Good Morning Britain, Yahoo News, MSN, Hits Radio, and featured in Jess Phillips MP’s IG Story.​

This is not the end. The plaques are now being taken across the country to apply pressure to local MPs, and push for the change that must happen. A petition will be created once the committee reopens, to get this issue at the top of the Government’s agenda. 

In memory of:

Julie Butcher

Poppy Devey Waterhouse

Elinor O’Brien

Ellie Gould

Jan Mustafa

Megan Newborough

Claire Tavener (Willmott)

And all women whose lives are lost to domestic homicide. 

May their names never be forgotten.