'We don't want OBEs - we want our murdered girls back'

Two mothers who were recognised in the New Year Honours list have said they would rather have their murdered daughters back than be given honours.

Carole Gould and Julie Devey were appointed OBEs for their work co-founding the group Killed Women after their daughters - Ellie Gould, 17, and Poppy Devey Waterhouse, 24 - were murdered.

The mothers are due to travel to Buckingham Palace in London on Thursday to collect their OBEs.

Ms Gould said the appointment was "bittersweet" but added it was "nice to be recognised for the work we have done".

She said it had been "a gruelling five-and-a-half years".

The pair 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.

Ellie Gould was stabbed to death at her home in Calne, Wiltshire, in 2019 by Thomas Griffiths after she ended their relationship.

Because he was 17 at the time, Griffiths received a more lenient sentence than an adult defendant.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years and six months.

Poppy was murdered by Joe Atkinson in Leeds in 2018 following the breakdown of their three-year relationship.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years and 310 days.

Ms Gould said Ellie's Law has had a "huge impact".

She said the starting point for sentencing Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, who killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop last year, was increased by 15 years because of Ellie's Law.

Rudakubana was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in January.

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 Atkinson's sentence would have increased from 15 years and 310 days to "nearer 19" had the aggravating factors been applied.

Ms Gould similarly said Griffiths - 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."

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