Every third day, in our #EveryThreeDays campaign, I write about a woman killed by a man. Previously in this campaign, which started on May 2nd 2021, we have remembered 68 women, the last being Christine Tunnicliffe Massey – who was killed by her husband, Raymond Massey.
Today we remember Bianca Shepherd known as ‘Kay’, who was stabbed seventeen times in November 2015 by her flatmate Emmanuel Willems because she allegedly laughed at him. Bianca lived in Uxbridge, close to Heathrow airport, under a mental health housing scheme. Willems was diagnosed as schizophrenic in 2013.
However, there were constant disagreements that were reported to authorities which were ignored. Because of his illness, Willems was convicted of manslaughter by diminished responsibility and sentenced to be detained indefinitely at a mental hospital.
Bianca’s son Adam said this:
“The family’s view is one of complete sadness that the whole mental health care system and its associated care and housing system has been utterly failing in both its short and long term responsibilities. Mum’s well-being, her living needs, and overall support programme has been lacking in its supervision, monitoring, and true care.
Continuing, he said, “This tragedy could so easily have been prevented.
We believe that every individual has a fundamental right to be able to live in a place of safety within our nation. Tragically those to whom Kay relied for her well-being appeared to have failed in their competencies and duties. Evidence suggests that Kay and her housemate reported several incidents. Still, they were not believed or do not appear to have been followed up by those employed by the various care and housing authorities.”
Bianca Shepherd
#EveryThreeDays
