Valerie’s law is a proposal to tackle domestic abuse specifically among black communities, through a process of cultural competency training for the UK police force and it’s related bodies.
It’s named Valerie’s law after Valerie Forde who was murdered together with her 23 month old daughter Jahzara by her ex partner in 2014.
A few weeks before the murders took place Valerie had reported his threats to the police but they has been recorded as a threat to property rather than live. The police had come to the home after Valerie called 999 but left after allegedly knocking and hearing no answer. Entry to the home is said to have taken 40 minutes, during which time the murders took place.
What happened to Valerie and her daughter highlighted a severe knowledge gap when it comes to the black community and it’s domestic violence victims by the police force and related services such as hospitals.
The campaign aims to see specialist training introduced as standard practice for service providers, in order to help them better navigate domestic abuse within black communities, to better understand the cultural nuances and barriers, colloquialisms, languages and customs that make up the diverse black community.
The law still hasn’t been passed through parliament yet, but there is building pressure to make sure that it WILL happen eventually.
If you need help reporting or recovering from domestic abuse then please take a look at http://gemcic.co.uk, or drop me a message, help is out there.
The heartbreaking story of Logan Mwangi got more press coverage than the story I shared of Denise last week, however still not enough.
Logan was only 5 when he was murdered sometime in late July 2021, he was beaten to death by his mother, stepfather and his stepfathers stepson, the young defendant was only 13 at the time of the crime. After they had disposed of his body in a nearby river, cleaned the crime scene and then filed a missing person report.
The stepfather already had a series of criminal convictions from his time as a member of the national front, the convictions were for violent crimes, he was well known for being a racist and often made racial slurs to Logan about his ethnicity, having a father with Kenyan descent.
In August 2020 Logan broke his arm falling down the stairs, they didn’t initially seek medical help and tried popping the bone back by themselves, this incident was referred to the police. When Logan returned to school in September teachers noticed a dramatic decline in him. In January 2021 he was placed on the child protection register which meant that social workers would visit the family every ten days. These visits began in March 2021 and continued until shortly before his murder.
When passing sentence on the trio the judge stated that Logan was physically and emotionally vulnerable at the time of death, particularly those days leading up to his death when he had covid and was isolated in his room.
Both adult defendants were in position of trust, these are the people Logan should have been able to trust.
The murderous assault on Logan involved extreme and forceful impact to cause internal injuries of those expected in a high velocity car collision or a fall from a great height. He would have survived his injuries for several hours, had medical assistance been sought Logan would have had an 80% chance of survival, instead the defendants left him to die and then worked together to dispose of his body like fly tipped rubbish.
All three of them have been found guilty and sentenced to life for what the Crown said was a brutal and sustained assault prior to his death.
In the aftermath an inspection of local child protection services in Bridgend and in particular a review of events leading up to Logans death took place. The young age of one of the defendants was was 13 at the time, 14 when he went on trial received some attention, especially as he was known to child services and had only recently been placed in the care of his stepfather even though he had expressed extreme hostility to Logan.
This is another case where I feel the victim has been let down by the systems that should have been protecting him.
