Giving Victims a Voice
MURDERED MUM’S CHILDREN HAVE THEIR SAY
A brother and sister from North Wales whose mother was brutally murdered by their stepfather have helped pioneer a groundbreaking national project to give the victims of crime a voice.
Their mother’s killer has been in prison for the last 11 years but is now eligible for parole.
Michael Taggart and Becci Churchill have become two of the first people to be able to tell their story to a parole board as part of a scheme administered locally by the North Wales Probation Area.
Donna Marie Evans was stabbed to death at her flat in Rhyl by estranged husband Derek Evans after years of alcohol-fuelled abuse.
Now her children, Mike, 27, and Becci, 28, have been able to tell a parole board of the heartbreak and horror of the case and of how they dread their stepfather being released.
They have been receiving invaluable support from an organisation dedicated to helping the families and friends of homicide victims. They have been helped by the Probation Service-funded North Wales branch of Support After Murder and Manslaughter Merseyside & Surrounding Areas which meets every month in Kinmel Bay.
The brother and sister relived their pain when they addressed the North Wales Criminal Justice Board’s annual conference at Llandudno. They told how after he had been drinking Derek Evans would beat their mother and verbally abuse her – it went on for years. Becci said that her mother worked 70 hours a week with people with learning disabilities but her husband disliked her new-found independence and once after she had been for a drink with friends he attacked her in the street.
She left him but later returned and the cycle of abuse continued until one day he chased her round the room and pinned her to a chair before Mike dragged him off.
She left and took a flat but there was no escape, as Mike told the conference: “He went round to her flat and stabbed her 11 times, once for every year they were married. “There were no defence wounds. She must have died instantly.
“He told the court he couldn’t remember anything but he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 11 years.”
Now that Evans is eligible for parole it has brought everything flooding back for the brother and sister: “We didn’t know what was happening until we were approached by the Probation Service,” explained Mike.
“That has been one of the best things as a family, the way the Probation Service have supported us and made us aware of what is happening.
“Over the last 12 months we have been kept fully updated so we know that he has appealed against his conviction on the grounds that he was provoked and that he was poorly advised by his solicitor.
“I have written out a Victim’s Personal Statement which was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do and at the parole hearing I came face to face with the man who killed my mother.
“He just stared at me. He was trying to intimidate me. I felt like I was 15 again. I was a mixed bag of emotions.
“But it was good to tell this man I had hated for so long just what I felt. He has shown no flicker of remorse for my mother’s death.
“I feel more could be done for victims but I’m really pleased we are in touch with the Probation Service and that we can just pick up a phone and get support and answers to our questions.”
Becci, a mother of two who was unable to attend the hearing because of illness, was able to tell her side of the story through an advocate and she added: “This gives us a way to be heard so that we’re not just a number, not just another case file.”
Cassie Kerr, a Victim Liaison Officer and Women Safety Worker with the North Wales Probation Area, has been working closely with them. She said: “Mike and Becci are two of just eight victims to have taken part in Parole Board hearings across the country.
“It has been so brave of them to do that and to come to the conference. It shows great courage after such a long period of time.
“Becci was too poorly to attend but she had a Probation Officer to act as her advocate and present her Victim’s Personal Statement to the hearing so she did not miss out.”