{"id":1702,"date":"2020-07-13T12:33:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T11:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1702"},"modified":"2020-07-13T12:33:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T11:33:22","slug":"jessica-patel-murder-middlesbrough-review-finds-signs-of-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/jessica-patel-murder-middlesbrough-review-finds-signs-of-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Patel murder: Middlesbrough review finds signs of abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Women seeking medical help for anxiety should be asked if they are suffering domestic abuse, an inquiry into the murder of a pharmacist has found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mitesh Patel&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-tees-46453025\">strangled his wife Jessica<\/a>&nbsp;in a staged break-in at their home in Middlesbrough in May 2018 as part of a plot to move abroad with his gay lover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.middlesbrough.gov.uk\/community-support-and-safety\/domestic-abuse\/domestic-homicide-reviews\">domestic homicide review<\/a>&nbsp;found the murder could not have been predicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are lessons to be learned about the awareness of warning signs of domestic abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The review, carried out by Middlesbrough Community Safety Partnership, said there were signs Mrs Patel, 34, was being domestically abused by her husband during their nine-year marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The panel said individual family, friends and colleagues had pieces of information that on their own &#8220;may not have seemed significant or alerted them of concerns&#8221;, but when put together would have shown the abuse she suffered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Incidents included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Patel refusing to let his wife return home to visit her dying grandfather<\/li><li>Patel shouting at his wife in front of colleagues and customers at the Roman Road Pharmacy they ran together<\/li><li>Patel moving his wife to Middlesbrough from the Halifax area which her family said was to isolate her<\/li><li>Patel throwing a phone at her injuring her leg<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Mrs Patel sought help from a GP for anxiety but there was &#8220;no evidence&#8221; she was explicitly asked about domestic abuse, the panel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Research suggests that women experiencing domestic abuse are more likely to experience a mental health problem, while women with mental health problems are more likely to be domestically abused,&#8221; the review said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;In cases of mental health problems, health professionals should always consider asking a direct question of the patient.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Act of evil&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The panel&#8217;s report said Ms Patel was getting fertility treatment as she desperately wanted to be a mother, but unbeknown to her Patel was taking drugs to stifle his sperm count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He had a series of gay affairs and was planning to move to Australia to be with a lover, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The panel also said the murder should be considered an honour killing as the &#8220;only way [Mitesh Patel] may have felt able to leave the marriage with honour was by killing Jessica&#8221;.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement, Mrs Patel&#8217;s family said they supported the &#8220;extremely painful&#8221; review to &#8220;provide a voice for her&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;So that this act of evil is not repeated, we encourage everyone to open their eyes, to ask questions and never assume everything is ok,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-tees-53389877\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women seeking medical help for anxiety should be asked if they are suffering domestic abuse, an inquiry into the murder of a pharmacist has found. Mitesh Patel&nbsp;strangled his wife Jessica&nbsp;in a staged break-in at their home in Middlesbrough in May 2018 as part of a plot to move abroad with his gay lover. A&nbsp;domestic homicide [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}