'Attitudes have to change' - the rise of femicide in NI

"I've been working in this field for over 25 years and I've never seen it so bad, four women murdered in the space of just six weeks."

The words of Sonya McMullan, regional services manager for Women's Aid Federation Northern Ireland.

She said staff working for the charity have endured a difficult and challenging week following the death of yet another victim in what seems to be a never ending cycle of violence against women.

Mary Ward is the latest victim. The 24th woman to be killed in Northern Ireland since January 2020.

Her smiling face was splashed across newspapers and featured in television reports throughout last week.

Her body was found in her home in south Belfast on 1 October, but police believe she was killed on 25 September.

The 22-year-old was much more than simply the latest statistic: she was the mother of a young child, a daughter, a sister, a friend.

"I can't get her face out of my head, those striking, beautiful eyes and her smile," said Ms McMullan.

"Now we've got another family who are grieving, I've spoken to so many of these families. I don't want to have to speak to another one.

"It's horrible and it's been a very hard week. You start to think, what difference are we really making here when the killings just continue? But we have to get out of bed and start again every morning for the women and children that are coming behind."

A man arrested by gardaí in Dublin on Wednesday has been charged with the murder of Mary Ward.

The PSNI is facing questions about its interactions with her as police officers had been in contact with her several times in the weeks before she was killed after she made a complaint about a violent assault.

Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman is investigating the response to that complaint and whether more could have been done to prevent Mary Ward's name being added to Northern Ireland's shameful list of victims of femicide.

Bigger questions are also being asked.

Why is Northern Ireland per head of population one of the most dangerous places in Europe to be a woman?

Estimates indicate that it is second only to Romania.

Women's Aid Federation Northern Ireland and its sister organisation, Women's Aid in the Republic, have been keeping a joint list of women who have been killed by men as a result of domestic violence.

There has been a total of 58 recorded since January 2020, with 24 in Northern Ireland and 34 in the Republic.

The age range for the victims was from 18 to 82.

At first glance the threat to women appears to be greater south of the border, but not when relative populations are taken into account.

Northern Ireland has a population of around 1.9 million, while the Republic's headcount is around 5.1m, more than two and a half times higher.

If the per head of population murder rate was mirrored in the Republic, 86 women would have been killed during that four-year period. A staggering figure.

"Because of our small population, the figures in Northern Ireland are huge," said Tahnee McCorry, CEO of White Ribbon NI, a charity that is part of a global movement seeking to end male violence against women.

"Four women murdered in six weeks in a place this size is massive, dreadful statistic. People looking in from other places maybe don't realise the seriousness of it if they don't have the context of how small Northern Ireland is."

While there have been some high-profile cases of women being murdered by strangers, the vast majority are killed in their own homes and by people they know.

"Most women are killed by someone that at one point they loved and they know, a lot of the time they are killed by someone that at one point they trusted," said Ms McCorry.

"And most of the time it is in their own home, which should be the safest place for them."

'Attitudes have to change'

Of the 24 women murdered in Northern Ireland since January 2020, 21 of the victims were killed in their homes.

Femicide, the killing of females by males because they are females, often follows long periods of other abusive behaviour, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

According to PSNI figures, domestic abuse is reported on average every 16 minutes, and the real figure is likely to be considerably higher as many domestic abuse cases remain unreported, largely through fear of retaliation by the abuser or the complaint not being taken seriously.

A report entitled Trends in Domestic Abuse Incidents and Crimes Recorded by the Police in Northern Ireland for the period 2004/05 to 2022/23 published by the PSNI and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) reveals increasing reports of domestic abuse year on year since 2004.

"A report of domestic abuse every 16 minutes, and domestic abuse accounts for a fifth of all crimes in Northern Ireland, it's quite staggering," said Sonya McMullan.

"And as we know that domestic and sexual abuse are some of the most under reported crimes, we know that's only the tip of the iceberg.

"There is an eerie silence around violence against women and an element of blaming them for what happened to them. There are no vigils, no people gathering at the steps of Stormont calling for an end. Attitudes have to change."

When it comes to why, there are many factors and there is a broad consensus that Northern Ireland's troubled past is an important contributor.

For decades violence was part of everyday life in many communities, people became desensitised and cooperation with police was strongly discouraged and frowned upon.

"We are a post-conflict society and, as research indicates, post-conflict societies experience heightened domestic and family violence against women and children," Dr Katrina McLaughlin, a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at Queen's University, wrote in The Journal last week.

"NI also bears witness to the intergenerational transmission of trauma, with the association between parental mental distress and child psychopathology well established."

As the mother of a 14-year-old son, Tahnee McCorry believes that helping to shape how young boys and men view and interact with women and young girls is key.

White Ribbon NI has taken a programme called "Listen, Learn, Lead" into a wide range of sports clubs, businesses, community groups and schools.

"The listen part is about listening to the voices of women, listening to the survivors of violence, and listening to women speak about their experiences and understanding and acknowledging that there is an issue that needs to dealt with," she explained.

"The learn element is about the culture that's all around us, harmful gender stereotypes, objectification of women, things that normalise abuse and violence against women, from things at the bottom of the pyramid like cat calling or street harassment moving further up to stalking and drink spiking, and then to murder.

It's about understanding that violence against women and girls doesn't exist in a vacuum.

"Lead is about giving young people the tools to do something about it and to challenge those types of behaviour, everyday misogyny, if they see them."

She said men can and should be doing much more to challenge misogyny and to make it clear that violence against women and girls is not acceptable.

"Violence against women has historically been seen as a woman's issue, but with due respect if women could have ended violence against women and girls we would have done it by now," she said.

"Men are the ones who can stop it, it's men who are killing women.

"They have a massive role to play in this, they should be standing beside us and saying enough."

Sonya McMullan agreed.

"We need to have these conversations with our men, our boys, our male friends, because they people we need to be the biggest champions of calling out this kind of behaviour are men," she said.

Vital to end culture of victim blaming, says White Ribbon NI CEO

The Stormont Executive last month launched a "Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls".

Northern Ireland was the last part of the UK to introduce such a policy and also lagged behind the Republic.

The document sets out a seven-year strategy and is backed by a pledge of £3m over the next two years.

It has been welcomed by organisations striving to end violence against women and girls, but there is also a reality check.

"We welcome the fact that they have prioritised this, but three million pounds is a drop in the ocean, it really is," said Sonya McMullan.

She said there is weariness among staff dealing with a seemingly never-ending cycle of violence.

"Our phones didn't stop last week after the news about Mary Ward's murder," she said.

"Our groups across the country support 7,000 women and over 5,000 children and the calls just keep coming. It's been very difficult trying to keep staff morale up, to help staff see that what they are doing every day makes a real difference.

"What society needs to do is disrupt these perpetrators, many of them are serial perpetrators with a history of intimate partner violence. We need to go after them and stop them, and then also look at sentencing to make sure these perpetrators get the prison sentences they deserve."

Those who work with victims and survivors of domestic violence say ending a culture of victim blaming is vital.

"That is something that everyone needs to consider," said Tahnee McCorry.

"Comments like 'she shouldn't have been walking late at night, she shouldn't have been drinking, she should have looked after herself better’.

"That is extremely harmful, it stops women coming forward to report domestic abuse and violence and stops them speaking out when they feel in danger.

"When a man kills a woman the only person responsible is the man.

"When we victim blame, we stand with the perpetrator rather than standing with the victim."