Woman was stabbed to death by her abusive boyfriend four days after court banned him from contacting her and less than an hour after police were called to him fighting near her flat, inquest hears
- Kevin O’Regan repeatedly stabbed Donna Williamson at her flat in Grove Park
- In the months before her murder in August 2016, O’Regan was arrested twice
- He was identified by police fighting in Chinese restaurant on night of her death
Kevin O’Regan was jailed for life after he repeatedly stabbed Donna Williamson in the chest at her flat in Grove Park, Lewisham
A woman was stabbed to death by her boyfriend just four days after a court banned him from contacting her, an inquest heard.
Kevin O’Regan, 38, was jailed for life after he repeatedly stabbed Donna Williamson, 44, in the chest at her flat in Grove Park, south east London in August 2016.
In the months before her murder, O’Regan had been arrested twice – once for allegedly assaulting her and again when he turned up at her home with a knife.
He was then bailed on the condition he didn’t enter the borough of Lewisham, where she lived, or attempt to contact her.
O’Regan was rebailed on the same condition just four days before Ms Williamson’s murder when he broke the rule and visited her flat.
He was then identified by police fighting in a Chinese takeaway just an hour before she was stabbed to death, Southwark Coroner’s Court heard.
Ms Williamson’s mother, Susan, told the inquest how her daughter suffered from depression after repeated domestic abuse during her five-year relationship with O’Regan.
She said: ‘There’s only one person really to blame and that’s the person who killed her.
‘She became depressed, withdrawn. She never used to be a drinker. When she hitched up with him she just went down.
‘She used to be very fashionable and then she started wearing tracksuits; she said it was because he was jealous because of the attention she received from other men.
‘She was frightened of him, she was frightened to go to court.’
Mrs Williamson described her daughter as ‘happy go lucky’ and a ‘beautiful lady’ – but said she had suffered ‘a lot of tragedies’ in her life.
She said: ‘She was always full of life. She was popular with many friends and went to primary and secondary school.
‘She started work as a receptionist, and then a shop assistant and then a waitress but she gave up her job due to pain from a broken leg.
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‘She had a lot of tragedies in her life.’
The devastated mother said her daughter’s first boyfriend had died in a car accident when she was 17 and she later suffered a still birth.
She said: ‘Some days she would be in pieces, in a state, bringing back all her memories of giving birth to the baby.’
Senior Coroner Dr Andrew Harris told jurors O’Regan was arrested for allegedly assaulting Ms Williamson on May 4, three months before her murder.
He was arrested again after turning up at her flat, allegedly pulling out a knife and assaulting three officers while in custody.
He denied the offences in court and was bailed on the condition he didn’t visit the Borough of Lewisham, where Ms Williamson lived, or contact her in any way.
But O’Regan admitted to breaching those bail conditions after again being found at her flat when he appeared in court on August 8. He was released on the same conditions.
The coroner said on the evening of her death, four days later, she called the police to report someone trying to break into her flat, but later claimed it was only her cousin.
But Ms Williamson’s flat had been flagged by a domestic abuse charity as a ‘priority’ and police decided to attend, the inquest heard.
Dr Harris said at 10.37pm an emergency call was made reporting men fighting in a Chinese takeaway near Ms Williamson’s flat – one of whom police identified as O’Regan.
Donna Williamson’s mother told the inquest how her daughter (pictured) suffered from depression after repeated domestic abuse during her five-year relationship with O’Regan
Ms Williamson called 999 at 11.23pm the same evening and reported ‘being stabbed.’
Dr Harris said: ‘The ambulance is called, police arrived and Kevin O’Regan admits stabbing her and life is pronounced extinct.’
A post-mortem by consultant pathologist Brett Lockyer found her medical cause of death was ‘stabs to the chest’.
Althea Cribb, the independent chair of a domestic homicide review into the agencies involved with Ms Williamson, told the inquest she had ‘fallen into holes’.
She said: ‘She was complex, complicated, chaotic and failing to engage and the sheer number of agencies seem to work against the ability of practitioners to address her needs.’
Ms Cribb suggested Miss Williamson was under duress by O’Regan when she told agency workers different accounts of her abuse.
‘Some of the agency records did suggest a certain amount of frustration that Donna was not accepting the help that was offered,’ she said.
‘The only thing she keeps asking for is help to make her home secure and to deal with the fact her landlord wants to evict her.
‘In the review panel, when we discussed this we still couldn’t see who should have done it.
‘I think there’s an argument for all organisations to have a statutory responsibility to respond to domestic abuse in general, whether that’s victims, or perpetrators or children and young people.’
O’Regan, of Kidbrooke, south east London, was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for Ms Williamson’s murder at the Old Bailey in February 2017. He will not be called to give evidence to the inquest.
The inquest, expected to last three weeks, continues.
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