Epsom College: Police face backlash over response to shooting

Domestic abuse campaigners have accused police of overlooking a "pattern of violence against women" by describing the Epsom College shooting as an "isolated incident".

Emma Pattison, 45, was found dead with her husband, George Pattison, 39, and their seven-year-old daughter Lettie at their home in the grounds of Epsom College in Surrey on Sunday.

On Tuesday, Surrey Police said the deaths at the prestigious boarding school were being investigated as a possible murder-suicide. It has been reported in multiple outlets that Mr Pattison killed his family before turning his shotgun on himself, although this has yet to be confirmed by police.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident on Sunday morning, Surrey Police described the killings as an "isolated incident". The language used has provoked criticism from campaigners.

Read more: What happened at Epsom College?

"There is nothing 'isolated' about a man murdering his wife and family," British-American lawyer Dr Ann Olivarius KC told Yahoo News UK.

"A family murder doesn't come out of nowhere and violent men don't suddenly 'snap'."

The lawyer said that the police "of all institutions" should know that "male violence in the family is predictable, widespread and yes, dangerous to the public at large too".

"The men who commit public acts of terror almost always have a back history of domestic violence. When the police doesn't understand domestic violence, we are all less safe for it," she added.

Domestic abuse campaigner David Challen, who led a campaign to free his mother Sally from prison after she killed his abusive father, also criticised Surrey Police's choice of words.

"When police call the event of a man killing women as an ‘isolated incident’ it is a refusal to connect it to the pattern of male violence against women," he told Yahoo News UK.

Read more: Lucy Letby trial: Baby girl 'killed by injection of air into her stomach'

"It is a refusal to recognise that every three days in the UK, a woman is murdered by her partner or ex-partner and that male violence is a daily lived threat that women face.

"Language matters, if the threat to women is constant can it ever be isolated? The answer is no."

He said police reflecting in their language the "constant state of terrorism women face in the home and in society from male violence", would "give urgency" to the scale of the "epidemic".

Responding to the criticism, Surrey Police said in a statement: "We are aware of concern and upset at the use of the term isolated incident in our communication surrounding the deaths of three people at Epsom College on Sunday, 5 February.

"Our intention was to explain there was no wider risk to the public or the communities in the surrounding area, but we fully recognise the impact this language has had, and we welcome this scrutiny and feedback."

Read more: Nicola Bulley: What we know on Thursday as search area shifts to Lancashire coast

Read more: Epsom College: Headteacher 'made concerned phone call about husband' to friend hours before death

The force has referred itself to the police watchdog over contact it had with Mr Pattison in the days before the tragedy.

The chartered accountant had been in contact with Surrey Police just two days before the shooting and is understood to have undergone a "phone review" regarding his gun licence - rather than officers visiting his home.

In 2016 police had investigated an allegation of domestic violence, against Mrs Pattison, but it did not result in a prosecution.

Mrs Pattison is also thought to have made a "concerned phone call" about her husband to a friend in the hours before her death.

An IOPC watchdog spokesperson said: “We are assessing the available information to determine what, if any, further action may be required from us.”