West mothers receive OBEs for work after their daughters’ murders

Two mothers mentioned in the New Year’s Honours list after campaigning following their daughters’ murders have received their OBEs.

Carole Gould and Julie Devey have been honoured for their work co-founding the group Killed Women after their daughters – Ellie Gould, 17, and Poppy Devey Waterhouse, 24, were killed.

The women received their OBEs in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday.

Ms Gould, from Calne in Wiltshire, had previously said the honour was “bittersweet” but added it was “nice to be recognised for the work we have done”.

Both Ellie, from Calne, and Poppy, from Frome in Somerset, were murdered by boys they had recently ended relationships with.

Their mothers have jointly called for an increase in the starting tariff for murders in the home from 15 years to 25 years.

In March 2021, Ms Gould successfully fought to change a law on sentencing for teenage killers – dubbed Ellie’s Law – so they could be given longer sentences.

Those found guilty of murder below the age of 18 were previously given more lenient sentences than adult defendants.

Ellie’s Law had an impact on the sentencing of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, who killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop last year.

Ms Devey said the aggravating factors they had successfully campaigned to be added to sentencing decisions are coercive and controlling behaviour prior to the death, strangulation and “overkill”.

Overkill is committing more force than is needed to kill somebody.

Ms Devey said: “They [the Government] always say ‘we wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for you’ and that’s hard, but it’s good to be reminded of that.

“So I suppose we have to take some consolation and think that may not have happened if we had not been pushing since 2019.”

She said the killer of her daughter’s sentence would have increased from 15 years and 310 days to “nearer 19” had the aggravating factors been applied.

Ms Gould similarly said her daughter’s killer – who received a 12-and-a-half-year sentence – would have received “nearer to 16 years possibly”.

Ms Devey said: “We’re still fighting for these domestic homicides to be seen as terrible, as awful, as murders that take place outside the home.

“If the starting point for sentencing is lower, then it is immediately diminishing the lives of those women who have their lives ripped away from them.”