Their names were Carol, Hannah, and Louise Hunt.
They were people, not just victims, not just mothers and daughters.
Three women, Carol Hunt, 61, and her two daughters, Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28, were murdered on Wednesday. The suspect, Kyle Clifford, 26, was discovered by police in Lavender Hill cemetery in Enfield, north London, on Wednesday following a large manhunt. He was the ex-partner of the youngest daughter, Louise Hunt.
One woman a week is murdered by a partner or ex-partner.
The reporting of this case has been laced with misogyny, the ‘nice guy’ treatment, and irresponsible rhetoric. I’ve seen news articles, in publications like Sky News, The Sun and The Daily Mail, all failing to refer to the women by name for the first half of their articles or referring to them as John Hunt’s wife and daughters in headlines. Many journalists have taken it upon themselves to interview people who know Clifford and write about how nice and normal he seemed.
Nothing to see here, just a nice, normal guy (who violently murdered three women), people!
No part of me can even begin to imagine what John Hunt is going through or offer condolences that will ever be enough for the amount of pain he will be feeling. The press should say the same, whilst also giving dignity to the women Hunt loved - the women whose names were Carol, Hannah and Louise Hunt. Women who had full lives. Women who were people, who were more than victims of Clifford’s, more than sensationalist headlines.
How we report on violent men who murder women is part of the problem, part of the system that normalises and enables. Let me say it again: One woman a week is murdered by a partner or ex-partner. This is a societal issue, a public health problem, an endemic - we must name it for what it is. We must change how we talk of the women murdered by men; they are not nameless stats. They were people, they are loved, they are worthy of respect. Their names were Carol Hunt, Hannah Hunt and Louise Hunt.