\n<\/p>\n
Hours before Katie Madden took her own life, she had a tense phone call with her former partner Jonathon Russell. Russell was on bail after allegedly assaulting Madden \u2013 he was banned from contacting her \u2013 but the conversation took place nevertheless.<\/p>\n
There was a witness to the call who gave evidence to the inquest into Madden\u2019s death. Mason Jones, a friend of Madden\u2019s, said Russell was \u201cvile\u201d and \u201cabusive\u201d. Although Jones said he could not remember the exact words Russell used, he said: \u201cI recall Jon saying at least once that he was in control of the town and would end her life if she didn\u2019t do it herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
In evidence, Russell denied saying this, but he did admit he had encouraged Madden to kill herself before this.<\/p>\n
In the days leading up to Madden\u2019s death, her mother, Bernadette Sutton, had told police and social services that she was concerned about the threat Russell posed to her daughter. \u201cBy this point, I thought he would kill her or she would take her own life,\u201d Sutton said, in a statement.<\/p>\n
Nigel Parsley, the coroner, concluded that Madden died by suicide while the balance of her mind was disturbed, but he also cited her relationship with Russell, with whom she had two children, as a contributory factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cKate\u2019s toxic relationship, in conjunction with Kate\u2019s known mental health conditions, affected her state of mind and therefore contributed to her death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The circumstances surrounding Madden\u2019s death are no doubt tragic, but they are also an example of an increasingly controversial area of UK justice, one which has been described as a blind spot in the law\u2019s ability to see the growing numbers of suicides among domestic abuse victims as something more: evidence of potential crimes.<\/p>\n
Analysis seen by the Guardian suggests that growing numbers of victims of domestic violence are taking their own lives. Campaigners are now calling for the circumstances that led to these deaths to be investigated.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Georgia Barter\u2019s death was judged by a coroner to be an unlawful killing.<\/span><\/p>\n The Guardian recently reported on the case of Georgia Barter, whose suicide after a decade-long campaign at the hands of her former partner Thomas Bignell was judged by a coroner to be unlawful killing \u2013 only the second time in English legal history that such a conclusion has been reached. Despite this, no police investigation into Bignell\u2019s role in Barter\u2019s death has ever been launched and the Crown Prosecution Service says there is insufficient evidence to bring charges.<\/p>\n Inquests have a different burden of proof to criminal courts, finding on the balance of probabilities, rather than the criminal threshold of beyond reasonable doubt. There is no criminal due process and nobody is convicted or acquitted.<\/p>\n In Katie Madden\u2019s case, although the coroner acknowledged that a toxic relationship contributed to her death, he did not make any finding of unlawful killing. Almost two years on, Madden\u2019s family say Russell has not been investigated in relation to any of the inquest findings or any alleged abuse. This is despite admitting at the inquest that he gave Madden a black eye weeks before she died.<\/p>\n Police closed the assault investigation just days after Madden was found hanged at her home in Lowestoft, Suffolk. \u201cThe idea that it would just be dropped because she died \u2013 it should never be the case,\u201d her mother says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just couldn\u2019t have wished for a better mum and person,\u201d Sutton says of her daughter. \u201cShe was very generous. She would give anybody her last penny. She would give anybody a lift.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up, Sutton remembers her daughter as a \u201cbundle of fun and a very lively girl\u201d who often had her head in a book. It was when Madden was about 12 that Sutton noticed a \u201cmassive change\u201d in her daughter. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t get out of bed,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t tell me anything.\u201d Much later, Sutton discovered Madden had been sexually abused.<\/p>\n As her teenage years passed, Madden began drinking heavily and going missing. Sutton felt powerless to protect her daughter and she spent a brief period in care. At 16, she dropped out of school after becoming pregnant with her first child, she began self-harming and using cannabis. She also tried to take an overdose \u2013 her first attempt at suicide.<\/p>\n She was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder and emotionally unstable personality disorder. Sutton says Madden had spells of stability, was devoted to her children, and eventually got her own house in Lowestoft.<\/p>\n However, she also recalls that many people \u201ctook advantage\u201d of her daughter, using her home to drink alcohol and take drugs. \u201cMost of Katie\u2019s friends, I wouldn\u2019t even call friends, I would call them acquaintances,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cShe never really understood how vulnerable she was. I said to her: \u2018Can you not see that these people are taking advantage of you and your roof over their heads?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n However, by late 2016, Sutton remembers Madden as being in a \u201cgood place\u201d. It was then she met Russell. She told her mother she thought she had finally got her \u201chappy ever after\u201d.<\/p>\n Throughout the course of our three-hour interview, Sutton refuses to say Russell\u2019s name, describing him only as the \u201calleged perpetrator\u201d. She recalls being uneasy in his company from the outset. When she first met her daughter\u2019s new partner over a meal, she says she \u201cwasn\u2019t 100%\u201d but tried to convince herself she was being overprotective. \u201cMothers sit on the fence to begin with,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Madden soon fell pregnant with the couple\u2019s first child, who was born in 2018. It was around this time she received a disclosure through Clare\u2019s law, otherwise known as the domestic violence disclosure scheme, warning Madden of Russell\u2019s past.<\/p>\n At Madden\u2019s inquest, Russell agreed that he had \u201csignificant previous involvement\u201d with the police, including one conviction for \u201cphysically assaulting a woman\u201d.<\/p>\n A referral was made to a multi-agency safeguarding hub in light of the Clare\u2019s law disclosure but the case was closed before any safety planning took place. In evidence, a senior social worker from Suffolk county council\u2019s adult social services said this was because it looked like \u201ca misdirected referral\u201d as it did not indicate Madden \u201cwas subject to abuse or a crime\u201d.<\/p>\n In a statement, the local authority said \u201clessons were learned by all agencies\u201d after Madden\u2019s death and added that it had \u201cstrengthened\u201d its referral process \u201censuring that safeguarding concerns about parents and children are shared promptly and appropriately\u201d between departments. The council also said it had introduced \u201cdomestic abuse workers with dedicated training to better support adults in a child\u2019s life who may be experiencing domestic violence\u201d.<\/p>\n Madden had a second child with Russell in 2020. From this point, Sutton recalls, their relationship was \u201con and off\u201d, something she remembers her daughter found hard to navigate. \u201cKatie fell in love, this was her happy ever after,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cAnd suddenly it\u2019s all [fallen] apart for a number of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n The next few years were punctuated by mental health crises. In November 2021, Madden spent four weeks in intensive care after crashing her car into a brick wall, scared her children would be removed from her. In June 2022, she asked for the children to be taken into care. \u201cKatie\u2019s children were her everything, but she felt that she was fighting so many battles,\u201d Sutton says. A clinical psychologist suggested Madden would benefit from specialist cognitive behavioural therapy but she never received funding for it from any of the public services she was in touch with.<\/p>\n Sutton told the inquest that during this time, Madden was \u201cfenced off\u201d by Russell, and would sometimes spend days in bed without her phone as Russell \u201cwould smash it\u201d. The inquest was also told that, in February 2023, Russell struck Madden on the face with her phone. Two months later, the court heard, Madden arrived at a contact meeting with her children with a cut to her eye and told Sutton she had been assaulted by Russell after a night out.<\/p>\n At the inquest, Russell accepted he had given Madden a black eye. He had been arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and forbidden from contacting her.<\/p>\n In the weeks that followed, Madden\u2019s mental health problems spiralled. On 3 June, Sutton contacted her daughter to make arrangements for a picnic in the park with her children. Madden simply replied with a love heart.<\/p>\n The following evening, Sutton\u2019s doorbell rang. It was a police officer. She knew instinctively what had happened. \u201cI told her that she didn\u2019t need to tell me,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cI told her what she\u2019d come for.\u201d<\/p>\n Mason Jones was one of the last people to see Madden alive. In a statement, he told the inquest that he had only been friendly with her for about a month before she died. On the morning of 3 June, he recalled waking up to a string of messages from Madden, who seemed upset by some social media posts suggesting that Russell was with another woman in a hotel. At 7am, Madden and Jones went on a drive. Jones said he wanted to buy drugs to manage pain related to a medical condition.<\/p>\n Jones recalled that Russell \u201cseemed to instigate\u201d contact with Madden, despite his bail conditions. In his evidence, Russell claimed Madden called him. In response to Jones\u2019s allegation that Russell said he was \u201cin control of the town and would end [Madden\u2019s] life if she didn\u2019t do it herself\u201d, Russell became agitated. \u201cI didn\u2019t say that,\u201d he replied. \u201cGet me the evidence \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t say that. I\u2019m a father. Why would I say that?\u201d<\/p>\n He was asked by the coroner what the \u201cgeneral contents\u201d of the call were. He said: \u201cIt was very erratic at the start. She was crying \u2026 she was just very panicky \u2026 I tried to reassure her but then it escalated into an argument. I ended up saying bad stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n The coroner asked if Russell had told Madden she should hang herself. \u201cI didn\u2019t say hang herself,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a couple of references where I said, go kill yourself. Instantly, I went back on myself, and said, don\u2019t be silly, don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones said he and Madden went to another friend\u2019s house, where Madden \u201ccontinued to argue\u201d with Russell by phone before returning home. At about 12.45pm, she sent a message to Jones which read: \u201cThanks for putting up with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Later that afternoon, Joe Hart, a friend of Russell\u2019s, visited Madden\u2019s home as she was looking after his dog. He told the inquest that Russell had told him Madden had \u201ca noose around her neck\u201d, but said: \u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t think it was a serious statement.\u201d<\/p>\n Hart did not get a reply at Madden\u2019s house. He threw an empty milkshake bottle at her bedroom window to try to get her attention but there was no response.<\/p>\n Neither man alerted the police, or Madden\u2019s family. Hart said this was \u201cbecause of what Katie was like \u2026 she\u2019d quite regularly go off the map after she\u2019d been wrecked\u201d.<\/p>\n Russell disputed knowing Madden had a noose around her neck. He told the inquest: \u201cShe said that she was going to kill herself, she didn\u2019t say she had a noose around her neck.\u201d<\/p>\n When Russell was asked if he had failed to raise the alarm because he wanted Madden dead, he said: \u201c<\/strong>You shouldn\u2019t be speaking like that. I\u2019ve got two children with her. Come on, man, that\u2019s wrong. I didn\u2019t want her dead. I dream about her every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n Hart returned to the property at about 5pm on 4 June, the inquest heard. He said he contacted Russell, who encouraged him to break in if there was no response. When he entered the house, Hart found Madden hanged and called the emergency services.<\/p>\n On the way to Madden\u2019s home, PC Bradley Congleton was told there was a history of domestic violence between Madden and Russell, which had culminated in a live assault investigation. He recovered Madden\u2019s phone from the property. When he charged it, he told the inquest, he found messages from Russell encouraging Madden to kill herself. <\/strong>\u201cThere is no doubt in my mind, that is what he said to her,\u201d Congleton said.<\/p>\n Congleton\u2019s focus appears to have been on preparing a timeline of what had happened at the actual scene. In his evidence, Congleton said he considered it a priority to trace Russell to check his movements. At first, Russell would only speak to Congleton through an open window, the officer said. He recalled Russell saying that Madden had told him in her last hours that she \u201cdidn\u2019t want to be alive any more\u201d and was \u201cintoxicated through drink and drugs\u201d. Russell told Congleton he had been concerned but not been able to attend the address due to his bail conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cI just cannot even begin to think how Katie was feeling,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cI know she was feeling hopeless \u2026 she was made to believe that everything was her fault.\u201d<\/p>\n About a fortnight after Madden\u2019s death, when Sutton was clearing out her daughter\u2019s house, a letter arrived from the police, addressed to Madden. It said the assault case against Russell was being dropped.<\/p>\n \u201cThey must have known that Katie passed away,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cAnd they sent her that letter for me to open. And I was so upset, angry and cross about it, I ripped it up and I was so gutted that I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Sutton says she contacted police as she had \u201ca gut feeling there was more harm\u201d in her daughter\u2019s case. She was given Madden\u2019s phone. \u201cI read and listened to her messages,\u201d she told the inquest. She described Russell\u2019s messages as \u201cawful\u201d. \u201cHe told her to kill herself,\u201d she told the court. \u201cThis is something he had said on many occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no better detective than a mother,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cWhat Katie was saying would haunt me for the rest of my life. I just remember Katie saying in one of those voice notes, \u2018You are giving me more reason to do it. You are not welcome at my funeral.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Sutton said she wanted police to review Madden and Russell\u2019s communications in case they were able to build a case against Russell for coercive control; she claims officers told her they only had the capacity to examine a month\u2019s worth of data. <\/strong>She recalls an officer who tried to \u201creassure us as a family\u201d that the information about Russell would be held on file. \u201cThat\u2019s no good to me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The Guardian sent Suffolk police a series of questions about Madden\u2019s case. The force said it was unable to answer them as her death was the subject of a domestic homicide review that had yet to conclude. Domestic homicide reviews examine the deaths of adults suspected to have suffered violence, abuse or neglect at the hands of a partner or family member. They are intended to identify lessons for the multiple agencies involved, rather than decide on whether any criminal investigation is merited.<\/p>\n The Guardian was not able to reach Russell for comment.<\/p>\n Madden was cremated in an intimate family ceremony. \u201cShe was never the centre of attention,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cShe would never have wanted to be on parade.\u201d<\/p>\n After Madden\u2019s inquest Parsley, the coroner, issued a prevention of future deaths report addressed to the police, social services, the NHS, the home office and the Department for Health. He said there was \u201cno formal system in place\u201d to support Madden, even though she was \u201cknown to be vulnerable\u201d after the Clare\u2019s law disclosure and that multi-agency safeguarding referrals made in respect of her children were \u201cviewed in isolation, with no system in place to assess any additional risks posed to Kate herself\u201d.<\/p>\n He said that the public bodies Madden was in contact with each suggested another should pay for her cognitive behavioural therapy, which she ultimately never received.<\/p>\n Sutton, who works in the NHS, says she hopes lessons will be learned after the tragedy and criticised \u201cthe lack of communication, the lack of empathy, the lack of professional curiosity, the lack of risk assessment, the lack of the standard stuff that should be happening\u201d when it comes to dealing with alleged victims of domestic abuse.<\/p>\n Despite the police finding messages on Madden\u2019s phone from Russell in which he told her to kill herself, the Guardian understands no police investigation into their relationship or the circumstances surrounding her death has been launched since her inquest.<\/p>\n \u201cHow many more women have got to die?\u201d Sutton says. \u201cWhether they take their own lives, or whether someone takes their life for them, how many more women, before something is done? How bad does it have to get before someone is prosecuted?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hours before Katie Madden took her own life, she had a tense phone call with her former partner Jonathon Russell. Russell was on bail after allegedly assaulting Madden \u2013 he was banned from contacting her \u2013 but the conversation took place nevertheless. There was a witness to the call who gave evidence to the inquest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[4641,1386,1330,23122,1575,357,23121,3534,1551,1522,1388,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-44573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-abusive","9":"tag-domestic","10":"tag-dropped","11":"tag-expartner","12":"tag-girls","13":"tag-inquiry","14":"tag-katies","15":"tag-kill","16":"tag-police","17":"tag-story","18":"tag-violence","19":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Her happy ever after\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018I said, go kill yourself\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018There is no better detective than a mother\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018How many more women have got to die?\u2019<\/h2>\n