A bereaved mother “is not to be messed with”, said two women whose daughters were murdered by their ex-partners, as they were honoured for campaigning to tackle male violence.
Carole Gould and Julie Devey, co-founders of Killed Women, a group supporting families affected by male violence, have been made Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours.
They began campaigning after their daughters, Ellie Gould and Poppy Devey Waterhouse, were murdered in their homes by young men after they ended relationships with them.
Ms Gould and Ms Devey said in a statement: “By accepting the OBEs it will continue to shine a light on our campaigning and will keep the many unjust issues surrounding violence against women and girls in the spotlight.
“Getting this far has been really hard and emotionally draining and, of course, will not bring our darling daughters back, but as we learn more and more about the injustices, and more and more families reach out to us, we are fired up to continue our work.
“A bereaved mother is not to be messed with.”
The women hope to see an increase in the starting tariff for murders in the home, from 15 years to 25 years, the same as for killings outside the home.
They say it is “insulting and disrespectful to those women to say that their lives are worth 10 years less”.
Ms Gould’s daughter, Ellie, 17, was stabbed to death at her home in Calne, Wiltshire, in 2019, by her boyfriend, Thomas Griffiths, after she ended their relationship.
Griffiths then staged the scene to make it appear as though she had inflicted the fatal wounds herself.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years and six months.
Poppy, 24, was murdered by her ex-partner, Joe Atkinson, in Leeds in 2018, after the end of their three-year relationship.
Atkinson was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years and 310 days.
