Expert: The death of Louise Aitchison demands urgent FAI

Jane Monckton Smith today adds her voice to calls for an urgent Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into how police failures meant a young woman was never warned about a violent partner before he murdered her.

The author, a renowned expert in domestic violence and professor of public protection at the University of Gloucestershire, said the apparent incompetence, lack of specialist training and ignorance of protection and warning systems meant there could be no further delay to holding an inquiry into the death of Louise Aitchison, who died two years ago.

It can take years for an FAI to be agreed in Scotland and years more before it begins.

Last week, the Crown Office announced an inquiry would not take place into the death of a woman in an Edinburgh hospital, more than three years after her death.

Monckton Smith said: “The circumstances around the death of Louise Aitchison demand a full and urgent inquiry, not only to restore public confidence but also to detail exactly what went wrong and why. It is not enough for Police Scotland to decide what mistakes were made and promise to rectify them. An inquiry must examine what happened here and detail exactly what must be done to ensure it does not happen again.

“Without those answers and assurances that training and systems are in place to protect women at risk, they will continue to be at risk.

“It seems a very clear and tragic case of why Scotland should introduce a Domestic Homicide Review scheme, which allows independent experts to examine the responses of all services involved in killings where there is a domestic abuse history, that would be the more appropriate place to examine what went wrong in this case.

“Domestic Homicide Reviews are something Scotland should consider as a matter of urgency as they would allow the transparent investigation of cases, as well as the option of reporting serious failures to regulatory bodies.

“The Fatal Accident Inquiry system is currently overloaded, with families waiting years but, until the system changes, it is the only way for Louise’s family to see what went wrong and what has been done to adequately address those failures and mistakes and to ensure other women are not living in risk needlessly.”

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Ms Aitchison, 27, from East Kilbride, was killed in April 2020, soon after police officers responded to an emergency call to the home she shared with known repeat domestic abuser Daryll Paterson, 33.

A decision had been taken weeks before that police should warn her of his violent past but the warning was never delivered after a series of errors. Despite an order in place to inform Ms Aitchison, a dental nurse, of Paterson’s violent past, police officers still failed to warn her when they attended her flat, even when her killer promised to return later. Paterson waited until officers left and killed Louise, inflicting injuries so awful her family were unable to view her body.

Police Scotland later admitted at least 18 failures, and apologised for officers’ “shortcomings” telling Ms Aitchison’s mother Caroline Lyon, 56, and the Crown Office that it had changed systems and improved training. The force claims it might not have been “appropriate” to warn Ms Aitchison about her partner after she called for their help when he refused to leave her flat and suggested she might have known about his history of violence anyway, a claim denied by her mother.

She told The Sunday Post last month: “They might as well have put a target on Louise’s back. They missed opportunity after opportunity to protect her and warn her. If they had only done their job, my beautiful daughter would be still here today. I will never forgive them for that. Their excuses mean nothing.”

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Miles Briggs MSP, a member of the social justice committee, which oversees domestic violence issues, is writing to the Lord Advocate to call for an urgent FAI. He said: “This case highlights systemic failures in the police response to domestic abuse that must be addressed, and my deep concern is that there are others where families who expect to be protected are, in fact, being let down.

“The repeated failure to warn Louise Aitchison of Darryl Paterson’s violent past offending meant chance after chance to protect this vulnerable young woman was lost. It seems both inexplicable and inexcusable.

“Even on the night Louise was murdered, the police failed to act and Louise’s family and the public have a right to know exactly what went happened, why and what has been done, and still can be done, to ensure it cannot happen again.

“That is why I am writing to the Lord Advocate to ask for a decision to hold a Fatal Accident Inquiry into Louise’s death is taken urgently. I will also be asking for a quick response.

“The public have a right to know and be reassured that domestic abuse is being robustly pursued by Police Scotland, and that victims are being properly protected. Despite all the promises, this case highlights exactly how far Scotland has to go when it comes to tackling this dreadful crime.”