‘Hidden homicides’: Campaign calls for review of cases of women falling from heights

Campaigners are calling for an immediate review of cases of women falling from heights to ensure domestic abusers cannot get away with murder.

Up to 130 ‘hidden homicides’ could occur in England and Wales every year femicide campaign group It is estimated that among these women were murdered by partners or family members, but their deaths were officially recorded as accidents or suicides.

The new campaign, called Fallen Women, also urges police to track the number of cases of women falling from heights and to keep domestic violence as a key line of inquiry in investigations.

The call comes as the Channel 4 documentary Push: Murder on the Cliff is launched, which tells the story of Leeds lawyer Fawziyah Javed, who died when her abusive husband pushed her from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh.

Kashif Anwar is serving a life sentence for the murder of Javed, who was 17 weeks pregnant, in September 2021 following an escalation of abuse. Javed reported Anwar to police twice about his threats and was preparing to leave Anwar after consulting a divorce lawyer.

She survived the fall long enough to tell onlookers that Anwar pushed her, providing prosecutors with key evidence.

Her mother, Yasmin Javed, told the Guardian: “The prosecutor actually said that if Fazia had not left evidence that he pushed Fazia, they would still investigate the matter, but It will be harder to get a conviction.

“I have to admit, it did worry me. I started thinking, how many other women have been murdered like this and can’t give testimony?”

She said her daughter’s murder was orchestrated by someone who did not realize Javed had gone to the police and assembled a series of evidence against him. “He thought he was going to go home and be clean,” she said.

Anwar still maintains that the death was an accident, which may have become the official narrative if there hadn’t been so much evidence against him.

Killed Women, a campaign network of bereaved families, believes Javed’s case is an exception and that there may be many more cases of women pushed around by their abusers. The deaths are among an estimated 130 murders disguised as accidental deaths or suicides each year in England and Wales, which have not been fully investigated.

The estimate was extrapolated by criminologist Professor Jane Monckton Smith from data obtained by Tortoise Media on one police force which counted 15 sudden, unexplained deaths over five years with the domestic violence flag.

One campaigner, who cannot be named because his family’s alleged killers have never been charged, said: “Unfortunately, working with families in this network, we feel that rash errors by police have cost any prosecution or successful conviction. No hope or choice is gone.”

“Thus, things like allowing the alleged perpetrator some time between the fall and his arrest to contaminate or stage the scene to make it look like an accident or suicide.”

She said the homicide squad sometimes did not investigate falls from heights, particularly when women did not die immediately, and therefore lacked specialist skills and expertise during the critical stage of evidence collection. Additionally, she said it was generally accepted that a family’s concerns about domestic violence were not, by themselves, sufficient to initiate a murder investigation.

“In the cases of falling women and other hidden homicide deaths, it is catastrophically disappointing that there has been a lack of professional curiosity or even an effort to identify domestic violence as a key line of inquiry in the investigation. As a result, we are effectively missing a significant amount of evidence , this evidence could support further successful convictions and prosecutions.”

She added: “It is truly chilling that a family is worried that a male perpetrator of domestic violence has killed their loved one and that person is still within our community.”

The two-part documentary The Push will air on Channel 4 at 9pm on March 3 and 4.