Advocates and MLAs are calling for change after three women in B.C. were killed in one week due to intimate partner violence.
Most recently, 32-year-old Bailey McCourt was beaten to death in a public attack on July 4. Earlier that day, James Edward Plover — her ex-husband — had been convicted of three counts of uttering threats and one count of assault by strangling. Plover was arrested again and charged with second-degree murder.
McCourt had been living in fear before she died, an advocate says.
“She had been navigating the potential lethal violence for at least a year and had done everything she was supposed to do when it comes to making reports,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services.
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“We know there were many opportunities for the system to intervene and to have kept her safe and held him accountable for the violence.”
In the same week, a woman in her 60s in Surrey had been killed, apparently by her partner, who was later shot dead by police.
As well, an 80-year-old woman from Abbotsford was found dead with her partner in an apparent murder-suicide.
A recent review into the legal system’s treatment of intimate partner violence found that only 20 per cent of victims report the abuse. And those who do — like Baily McCourt — still aren’t always protected.
“What this case does is it sends a message to victims that if you do report, you cannot guarantee that the system will be a resource to you,” MacDougall said.
Meanwhile, advocates and MLAs are calling for a coroner’s inquest into McCourt’s death.
“There should be instructions from the AG’s office to BC Prosecution to make sure crown counsel is seeking mandatory risk reassessment every time there is a new charge or conviction involving intimate partner violence,” said Steve Kooner, Official Opposition critic for the Attorney-General and Conservative MLA for Richmond-Queensborough.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help support her family and her two young daughters.
