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Old May 29th, 2012 #37
Bev
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: England
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Quote:
A white teenage mother was brutally murdered by her Asian boyfriend for bringing shame on his family after the authorities missed numerous opportunities to shield her from harm, a review has found.


Laura Wilson, 17, who has been described as Britain’s first known white honour killing victim, was killed by Ashtiaq Asghar after she told his relatives about their affair.

She may have been subjected to sexual grooming by British Pakistani men from her early teens, and when she was 16 became pregnant by Asghar’s friend, Ishaq Hussain.

Miss Wilson was “almost invisible” to some support services and there were “numerous missed opportunities” to protect her and her four-month-old daughter, a serious case review concluded.

The report highlighted areas of “considerable concern” but found her murder could not have been prevented by the agencies involved.

Asghar was told he would serve at least 17-and-a-half years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to murdering Miss Wilson in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in October 2010.


He killed the teenager just days after she revealed her affairs with him and Mr Hussain to their families.

Asghar lured her to a secluded canal and stabbed her repeatedly in the head with a knife before leaving her dying in the water.

Miss Wilson’s mother, Margaret, said earlier this year: “I honestly think it was an honour killing for putting shame on the family. They needed to shut Laura up and they did.”

The serious case review, published today, detailed the teenager’s short but troubled life, during which she was involved with 15 different services supposed to protect and support her.

She was placed on the child protection register aged 11, suffered bullying, and was sent to a special school after being diagnosed with learning difficulties.

The report said the authorities appeared to lack knowledge about sexual grooming and its perpetrators.

It concluded: "Few services actually saw, observed and heard (Miss Wilson) as the highly vulnerable child she was and whom society had a responsibility to protect.”

Professor Pat Cantrill, the review’s author, condemned the reluctance of the authorities involved to step in to protect the teenager.

"There was a consistently high threshold before concern triggered action, and my view is that the attitude of the professional culture was, overall, too tolerant,” she said.

The expert said the case exposed problems nationwide with protecting vulnerable young adults and a lack of understanding about their needs.

Rotherham Safeguarding Children's Board said it had already acted on many of the report’s recommendations to ensure lessons were learned from the tragedy.

Alan Hazell, the board’s chairman, said: "There is no suggestion that anyone could have saved (Miss Wilson) from what ultimately happened to her but clearly her care could have been improved.

"There were chances for those agencies to be more proactive in how they dealt with the case and all agencies involved accept that and apologise that the standards of service were not as high as they should have been.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9297748/Numerous-opportunities-missed-to-protect-first-white-honour-killing-victim.html

Ah, it's the fault of the authorities. Not the murderer, the authorities.
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Above post is my opinion unless it's a quote.