These women were murdered by men meant to love them - now killers like them could spend longer behind bars
19.03.2023 - 00:49
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Before the appalling murders of Elinor O'Brien, Regan Tierney and Jessica Patel, a similar pattern had been emerging behind closed doors.
All three women - who died at the hands of their partner or former partner, had seen every part of their lives controlled by the person supposed to love them most.
Elinor O'Brien, who was killed by her sadistic boyfriend, Kevin Mannion, at his Manchester city centre flat in August last year, had been subject to controlling and coercive behaviour throughout their relatively short relationship.
READ MORE: 'I was told I'd never have children - then something incredible happened'
Mannion, over 25 years her senior, stabbed the 22-year-old to death following a row about how a woman he'd also been seeing had revealed she was pregnant.
During her 10-year relationship, Regan Tierney was also subject to coercive and controlling behaviour, as well as intimidation, verbal abuse and physical violence, at the hands of her ex-partner Daniel Patten.
The mum-of-two had found the strength to leave him, but he was alleged to have struggled to accept their relationship had ended.
In June 2019, he stabbed her to death at her home in Walkden, Salford. He was later found critically injured by officers who attended the scene, and died in hospital a few days later.
Jessica Patel, a Manchester University pharmacy graduate, was drugged and strangled at the marital home she shared with her cheating husband, Mitesh Patel.
A murder trial heard how Patel had spent months plotting to kill his wife so he could start a new life in Australia with his secret boyfriend, and live on a £2million life insurance payout.
During a trial it emerged Jessica, like the other women, had endured years of coercion, control and