‘Imagine this was your daughter’: how grieving mothers campaigned to close sentencing gap

Carole Gould (left) and Julie Devey presented the justice secretary with photographs of their murdered daughters after seven years of campaigning. Photograph: Anna Gordon/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Carole Gould (left) and Julie Devey presented the justice secretary with photographs of their murdered daughters after seven years of campaigning. Photograph: Anna Gordon/The Guardian ‘Imagine this was your daughter’: how grieving mothers campaigned to close sentencing gap David Lammy’s decision to increase minimum sentence for domestic murder victims follows years of tireless lobbying David Lammy had gone quiet. Sitting in his ministerial office in the Palace of Westminster, the justice secretary had just been presented with pictures of women killed by their partners in their own homes, by their grieving mothers. As she put the photographs in front of him, Carole Gould explained that her 17-year-old daughter, Ellie, was killed by fellow sixth-former Thomas Griffiths the day after she ended their relationship in 2019. Julie Devey, who was joining the call remotely, showed a photograph of her daughter, Poppy Devey Waterhouse , who was 24 when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Joe Atkinson, on 14 December 2018. In both cases the young women were stabbed repeatedly; both killers tried to hide their crimes. But because they had been attacked in a domestic setting, with weapons used from their homes, their killers faced a maximum sentence of 15 years – 10 years fewer than if they had been murdered in the street or by a weapon brought to the murder scene. Atkinson’s sentence was fixed at 16 years; Griffiths got 12 and a half years. It was, the mothers said, like their daughter’s lives were worth a decade less. View image in fullscreen Carole Gould, whose daughter Ellie was killed in 2019, was watching from the public gallery as Lammy announced the plans. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian Gould, frustrated after seven years of campaigning, looked Lammy in the eye and said: “Imagine this was your daughter.” The justice minister, who has described adopting his daughter as “the best thing he and his wife ever did” alongside having their two sons, appeared shocked. The pair also showed photographs of women whose killers were sentenced in 2026, after new measures to deliver longer sentences for domestic murders if aggravating factors, such as domestic abuse or overkill, were involved. Their killers also received lower sentences. The measures weren’t working, said Devey. “I said: ‘That’s got to change. Whatever you’re doing at the moment is not working. What power have you got?’” recalled Devey. Lammy, they say, insisted he did have power. So Gould interjected: “Well, if you’ve got the power, David, why don’t you just level up sentencing all to 25 years?” There was another moment of quiet before he replied: “All right, I will.” The women looked at each other. For a few moments, no one spoke. “We’re just a bit stunned, thinking have we heard this rig