Probation mistake ‘signed my daughter’s death warrant’

The family and friends of a woman murdered by her abusive partner say she was let down by a “bankrupt” system.

Michaela Hall was killed by Lee Kendall at her home in Cornwall, in May 2021.

Just weeks before her death the Probation Service wrongly assessed Kendall as posing a “medium risk” of harm.

Peter Hall, Michaela’s father, believes the mistake “probably signed Michaela’s death warrant”.

In addition, despite an emergency call warning that she was being attacked, police officers did not try to force entry to her home.

At an inquest which ended on Friday, the coroner criticised the Probation Service and the actions of the police.

Michaela’s family says her story is a tragic example of how a manipulative and violent man can isolate and abuse a woman.

And how the system can fail.

On the evening of 31 May 2021, Michaela was on the phone from her home in Cornwall to her friend Clair Basnett, who lived abroad.

Michaela told her she was with Kendall, and she feared for her life.

“She was whispering. She didn’t know what to do,” says Clair.

“I asked her if she could get out of the house. She said no, he’s taken the keys.”

Michaela had been in a relationship with Kendall, an ex-prisoner who was an alcoholic and former drug addict, since 2019.

He had a history of violence, and had even spent time in prison for attacking Michaela.

Clair says she then heard Kendall attack her friend.

“You could hear him screaming at her,” she says. “And then she’s obviously dropped the phone as he has hit her… I could hear her start to scream.”

Clair rang Crimestoppers, who called Devon and Cornwall Police.

After a 20-minute delay, two officers were dispatched to her house. There had been numerous call-outs before – on this occasion, they saw no sign of a disturbance and heard nothing.

Body-worn camera footage recorded one of the officers talking to the police control room, saying how they had visions of “her lying there with him covering her mouth”.

But believing they did not have the power to force entry, the officers left and returned to base.

Peter says it is scary to think that police officers on an emergency call could leave a possible victim helpless.

Officers returned to the property twice over the next 18 hours, but never tried to enter.

It was left to her father to find a key and go into the house by himself – a full day after the first emergency call. There, he found Michaela’s body.

Clair Basnett is angry at the police’s inaction.

“I think it’s disgusting,” she says. “They should have gone in. There’s no two ways about it.

Michaela, a single mother of two, had started a relationship with Kendall in 2019, while working with a prisoner resettlement charity.

Peter says his daughter told him everything was okay.

“She kept assuring us that this guy is perfectly safe, and he will be perfectly fine,” he says.

But Kendall was an alcoholic drug user with at least 50 convictions, who was known to be violent and manipulative.

Peter says that in the early stages, he did not think Michaela was aware that she was being manipulated or controlled.

However, Clair says it was clear from the beginning that Kendall was abusive. She says that he deliberately tried to cut Michaela off from friends and family.

Clair also saw Michaela covering up bruises. “She was spiralling into a very dark place,” she says.

Over the next two years Michaela called the police on more than a dozen occasions.

She suffered black eyes and even a fractured cheekbone but could not bring herself to press charges.

Michaela’s situation was well known to the authorities, who classed her as being “at very high risk” of abuse.

But she appeared to refuse all offers of help.

At one stage, Kendall was sent back to prison for breaching the terms of his parole for previous offences.

Police, probation and social services all discussed Michaela’s case at Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences or Maracs.

After one meeting an official wrote that she had “never wanted support from any agencies”.

Later, Michaela was the subject of what was called a Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO), which did not require her consent.

It was designed to prevent Kendall contacting her, but he breached the DVPO on at least three occasions.

He spent a short time in prison for his attacks on Michaela, but phoned her every day, persuading her to take him back.

Clair says she spoke to Michaela on the phone for hours about pressing charges against him.

“I thought she was actually going to go ahead and do it, but at the last minute she pulled out.”

When Kendall was released in May 2021, he went straight back to live with Michaela in the village of Mount Hawke, near Truro.

Within weeks she was dead.

Kendall was jailed for life last year, with a minimum 21-year term for her murder.

At the inquest into Michaela’s death, the coroner, Andrew Cox, singled out the probation service for criticism.

Weeks before her murder, Kendall had been classified as medium-risk by a junior officer not qualified to make the assessment.

“Had the shortcomings and errors not occurred,” said the coroner, “it is more likely than not that Michaela would not have died when she did.”

The coroner said there were also a number of shortcomings with the police response.

He said that there were “grounds in law” to force entry to her home, and believed the officers should have done so. However, he concluded that their behaviour had not caused or contributed to her death.

“She never saw the other side of people. She never saw the violence in people,” says Peter.

“She always believed if you were helping someone, they would appreciate it.”

Clair agrees.

“Nothing was too much trouble for her, she would stop and help anybody.

“She was amazing. Absolutely amazing.”

Describing the system that failed his daughter, Peter says: “I think it’s bankrupt.”

He adds that while there appear to be “lots of systems in place to support [victims of domestic violence], and there are genuine people out there that want to help… No-one’s joining the dots.”

New research shows that in England and Wales in 2023, in almost half of cases where a suspect killed their partner, the attacker was already known to be at high risk of being an abuser.

The figures come from the Domestic Homicide Project which is funded by the Home Office and led by the National Police Chief’s Council.

It compiles statistics on all deaths in England and Wales identified as domestic-abuse related.

The study, which has been running since 2021, also includes victims who died by suicide following abuse.

Over the first three years of the project, figures suggest 61% of suspects were known to the police for domestic abuse prior to the victim’s death.

Just two days before the murder, Clair says she confided to a friend about Michaela’s relationship: “One of them’s going to end up dead.”

Now she feels haunted by that prediction.

Clair has one piece of advice for anyone who knows a victim of domestic abuse: “The best way to help somebody in this situation is not to allow them to be isolated.”

Peter also believes things have to change if women like his daughter are to be kept safe.

“Michaela spent her last years wanting to help people,” he says. “All I can do – all we can do as a family – is make sure that we carry that through for her.”

The Ministry of Justice says it is “deeply sorry for the unacceptable failings in this case”, and adds that an extra £155m is being put into the system to deliver “more robust supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff”.

Devon and Cornwall Police says the officers concerned have been ordered to “undergo the reflective practice review process”.

It says that since Michaela’s death, “the force has implemented learning and improvement and this work continues”.

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, information and support is available via the BBC Action Line.