Mother-of-two, 23, died while waiting on hold to police

A mother died while she was on hold to police for eight minutes while reporting an assault, an inquest jury heard.

Daniela Espirito Santo, 23, had been told to dial the non-emergency 101 number and died waiting for her call to be answered, the court was told.

A coroner heard Ms Espirito Santo had called police multiple times about partner Julio Jesus between May 2019 and her death in April 2020.

A day before she died, Ms Espirito Santo said Jesus attacked her shortly after he had been released on police bail.

The court heard that on April 8, Jesus was arrested for allegedly pinning her down and holding his arm against her throat. He was bailed that evening with conditions not to return to the house in Grantham, Lincolnshire, or contact her.

But Mr Jesus, now 34, broke his bail conditions by calling Ms Espirito Santo and returning to their property later that night.

She dialled 999 at 23:22 claiming to have been assaulted by Jesus, but a police call handler deemed it non-urgent as Jesus had left the property. Ms Espirito Santo was told to call 101 and spent eight minutes on hold before the non-emergency call handler answered.

The Lincoln hearing was told on Tuesday that all the handler could hear at this point were the distraught cries of Ms Espirito Santo's six-month-old baby.

An ambulance was called and CPR was performed, but she was pronounced dead at 00:58 on 9 April.

A report from pathologist Dr Francis Hollingbury highlighted that the post-mortem showed Ms Espirito Santo, who suffered from a heart condition known as myocarditis, died as a 'result of acute deterioration of the heart'.

Dr Hollingbury's report found that Ms Espirito Santo suffered injuries to her forehead, cheek and jaw before her death and that she also had bruising on her breast and right arm. No drugs or alcohol were found in her system.

The inquest also heard from PC Miller, of Lincolnshire Police, who attended an incident on 19 May 2019, when Ms Espirito Santo first reported Jesus to the police following a verbal domestic incident where he had refused to leave.

By the time police arrived at the address, Jesus had left.

PC Miller completed a domestic assault, stalking and harassment (DASH) form on behalf of Ms Espirito Santo, the court heard.

During the assessment, Ms Espirito Santo told officers that Jesus had slapped and choked her. This was not investigated due to strangulation at the time being considered common assault and past the deadline for reporting.

The officer concluded mother-of-two Ms Espirito Santo was 'certainly not worried about any further offences' and ruled the likely risk of harm was low.

However, Emma-Louise Fenelon, the family's counsel, pointed out that the DASH form revealed 11 risk indicators, including drug abuse, jealousy, isolation, and financial issues related to drugs.

Mrs Fenelon also questioned officers about how much background research they had done when attending the incidents.

The officer did not refer the victim to independent domestic violence advocates or consider coercive and controlling behaviour.

PC Miller was questioned about his training, risk assessment, and decision-making processes.

He acknowledged that he could have recorded more detailed information in the risk justification box and should have considered the indicators of coercive and controlling behaviour.

However, he stated that he did not have a clear recollection of the full conversation with Ms Espirito Santo and that his rationale at the time was based on the information he had available.

Ms Espirito Santo's stepdad, Joaquim Manedo, described her as a 'strong character' who 'lived for her family' and 'did everything for her children'.

He described her five-year relationship with Jesus by saying it 'seemed good at first' but he got 'increasingly possessive of her' and Ms Espirito Santo became 'more introverted'.

The family has called on the inquest to answer questions about Lincolnshire Police's response to Daniela's complaints and the safeguarding procedures in place to protect her and others from further abuse.

Although police conduct was reviewed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, no major breaches of protocol were found.

The three-week inquest continues.