Chivalry isn’t dead: we must all step up

It isn’t possible to offer too much attention nor too many column inches to the plight of Pauline Jones, a grieving mother whose daughter’s fledgling life was cut short by a man 15 years her senior and otherworldly in his nature.

Geography student Bethany Rae Fields was just 21 when she was stabbed to death by Paul Crowther, a manipulative, controlling man described latterly as ‘evil.’ Despite repeatedly pleading with police for protection from Crowther, Bethany was turned away. Seven times. She told police, words that are now as prophetic as they are tragic, ahead of her killing: “He has an obsession with killing someone, and I know what that would feel like.”

Then, using an assessment tool that is nothing more than a tick-box questionnaire, officers deemed Bethany to be at medium risk of harm, leaving her to succumb to an early passing that she knew and warned was coming should the authorities not intervene.

Now, her courageous mother is contemplating joining legal action against the screening tool that failed her beloved daughter; a screening tool proven to be so inadequate that it is likely in the future to fail others, too.

Male violence against women is an epidemic to which we must all stand up; that means men, dads, brothers more than anyone else must stand behind, beside and if it comes to it, before brave women like Pauline Jones to insist more is done to protect women and girls from men and boys who intend to do them harm.

It cannot be allowed to fall to grieving mums and dads to fight it alone.

Source: The Yorkshire Post. Published 27/08/25