Joanna Simpson’s family are right to be worried – too many violent offenders slip through the cracks of a service that is there to keep us safe
Long before he killed her, Joanna Simpson’s husband had secretly dug what would become her grave.
The couple were separated and in the final throes of finalising their divorce when Robert Brown, a British Airways pilot, battered his wife to death with a hammer as their two young children cowered in a nearby room. Joanna, who had become frightened of her controlling husband, was only days away from what should have been the last court hearing to end their marriage. Brown buried her in a secluded corner of Windsor Great Park in a makeshift coffin he had prepared earlier, and then the following day called the police.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
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