The Times has published an in depth article addressing the failures of the Metropolitan Police to adequately respond to Carl Cooper who killed Naomi Hunte in 2022 and, whilst still under investigation for Naomi’s murder, went on to kill Fiona Holm in 2023.
Sophie Naftalin acts for Mr Basil Hunte, Naomi’s father, and Ms Savannah Holm-Aderemi and Ms Elise Skillen, Fiona’s daughter and sister.
The families are calling for a robust inquiry into the circumstances of both deaths, which addresses the question of whether the two women were discriminated against by officers on account of their race and mental illness.
Sophie Naftalin made the following statement:
“Both Naomi Hunte and Fiona Holm were vulnerable Black women who called on the police for protection from Carl Cooper, a man who was known to the Met to be a serial perpetrator of high risk domestic abuse. In Fiona’s case her report of a serious assault in April 2023 came when Carl Cooper was already under investigation for murdering Naomi. Both these deaths were preventable. There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that Met officers failed to respond appropriately to either of their requests for help, and that after they were killed there were serious and unexplained delays in the subsequent investigations. My clients are deeply pained by the inference that Naomi and Fiona were both treated with contempt by the police because they were Black women with mental health conditions and not therefore considered to be deserving of protection or help.
In March 2023 the Casey Review concluded that the Met was institutionally misogynistic and racist and identified key steps that needed to be taken to address the failures evident in how the Met respond to domestic abuse in order to rebuild trust. In light of those findings the Commissioner reassured the public that those changes were underway however many of the failures apparent in this case post date those reassurances. As far as my clients are concerned, there is very little evidence that anything has changed.
The Metropolitan Police have still not clarified to my clients the details of the investigations that have been carried out to date into the systemic failures evident in this case and the extent to which any individual officer may have committed misconduct. My clients are seeking a robust investigation which adequately addresses the extent to which discrimination may have played a part in how Naomi and Fiona were treated”.
