Coroner told police taken by ‘surprise’ when James Fairhall was released from custody before 2020 killing Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast A man who fatally stabbed his ex-partner in front of their three children was wanted by police for months, but they didn’t arrest him until she was dead. An inquest into the 2020 death of Noeline Dalzell is investigating how police and other state government services failed to protect her and their three teenage children from James Fairhall, despite his long hi ..read more

The reporter who covered the trial for the Observer recalls the twists and turns of the double murder trial – and how the jury reached its verdict with astonishing speed When the jury sent word they would deliver their verdict in the OJ Simpson double murder trial, the rest of America was caught by surprise, myself included. It had taken four hours to rule on nine months of evidence as to whether one of the country’s most famous black men had killed his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her young friend, Ronald Goldman. It felt far too quick. The televised case in 1995 had been an astonishi ..read more

Thirty years after I covered the ‘trial of the century’, its themes of race, misogyny, policing and celebrity still affect and define the nation It wasn’t the Kennedy assassination, but I remember exactly where I was on 3 October 1995 when a Los Angeles jury delivered its verdict in the OJ Simpson trial. A novice US correspondent for this newspaper, I was hunched over a primitive laptop, ready to press send on the piece that I had already drafted, confidently explaining to UK readers why the jurors had convicted an American sporting legend of double murder and the likely impact of their decisi ..read more

The 1994 murders of Simpson’s ex and her friend Ron Goldman are inextricable from society’s failure of domestic abuse victims OJ Simpson is dead, and Nicole Brown should still be alive. Simpson, the longtime batterer and stalker of Nicole Brown Simpson, and the man who all but confessed to her gruesome stabbing murder in June of 1994, died on Wednesday of cancer. He died at his home in Las Vegas, “surrounded by his children and grandchildren”, according to a statement issued by his family. He was 76. Simpson died in bed, receiving medical care to make him comfortable, at the end of his natural ..read more

Reactions to Simpson’s death range from points about domestic violence, to the decline of broadcast news to US race relations OJ Simpson has died at the age of 76 and the words of remembrance people have been sharing reflect his complicated, infamous life. Usually the death of a celebrity prompts a flood of similar-sounding tributes, remembering the highlights of their lives and keeping a respectful distance on any of the lower moments and controversies. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or ..read more

Sociologist whose research on coercive control led to new criminal justice responses to domestic abuse In his book Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life (2007), the American sociologist Evan Stark, who has died aged 82, developed a new understanding of domestic abuse that has since been taken up by governments, justice systems, activists and survivors around the world. Incidents of physical assault, he argued, were only the most visible part of domestic abuse. Drawing on 30 years of research as a forensic social worker, he documented a broader and more devastating pattern of ..read more

Almost always used against women and often accompanied by other forms of violence, financial abuse can have devastating consequences – including homelessness Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Kate was made to sign documents she wasn’t allowed to read, while being instructed to stay out of her husband’s financial affairs. She wasn’t permitted to open any mail related to his business ventures. During their marriage she was a victim of physical abuse. When she left with her two children, she found out she was also the victim of severe financial abuse ..read more

The father of Michaela Hall, the charity worker killed by her partner in Cornwall after he was wrongly assessed as only ‘medium risk’ says lessons must be learned A serial violent offender who previously tried to strangle his partner was free to murder her after being wrongly assessed as “medium risk” by the probation service. When Lee Kendall killed ­charity worker Michaela Hall on 31 May 2021, police had received 34 pieces of ­intelligence about his domestic abuse against her and he had almost 50 ­convictions, relating to 100 offences ..read more

At first, Victor love-bombed Anna. By the end, he’d rigged a doorbell camera to track her. Coercive and controlling behaviour has been a crime since 2015, but few cases get to court. What happens when they do? In a stuffy, overheated courtroom, a jury of 10 women and two men are watching baby monitor footage of an infant happily kicking its feet in a quilt-lined crib. The parents are off-camera, but their voices are audible, and the baby seems to be following their movements with its eyes. The mother’s hands become visible as she goes to touch the baby, before she backs away suddenly. A while ..read more

Crime crackdown plan also gives victims of rape and sexual assault the right to specialist support throughout justice process Six police forces will be given powers to charge domestic abuser suspects without the involvement of the Crown Prosecution Service as part of a series of Labour proposals to solve more crimes announced on Thursday. A future Keir Starmer government would also give victims in domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault cases the right to have specialist support advisers throughout the criminal justice process and beside them in court ..read more