Family say murdered daughter and grandson were 'let down' by agencies as review finds failures
Report by Emma Wilkinson
The family of a mother and son who were murdered by her violent ex-partner, have said they were 'repeatedly let down' by multiple agencies, after a review found missed opportunities to stop him.
Daniel Boulton, 32, is serving a life sentence for fatally stabbing 26-year-old Bethany Vincent and Darren "DJ" Henson, nine, in Louth, Lincolnshire, in 2021.
A court heard how he walked from a hostel in Skegness to Ms Vincent's home at High Holme Road to carry out the killings.
He then went on the run and later stabbed an off-duty officer who tried to detain him before being arrested on farmland on the outskirts of Louth 24 hours later.
Boulton, who had a history of violence and a string of convictions, including domestic abuse involving Bethany, was jailed for a minimum of 40 years in 2022.
Following a review of the case, the Safer Lincolnshire Partnership has found the risk he posed to his victims "was underestimated by professionals throughout".
"What is unequivocal is that the lines of communication between agencies were not sufficient to fully understand the risks involved," it said.
Caroline Vincent, Bethany's mother, said the family always knew there had been failings:
"We had a report which showed his background from 2009 - violent behaviour towards police officers, previous domestic violence, he'd been in prison. The violence was unbelievable, leading up to meeting Bethany and DJ.
"So this should have been a red flag from the first time Bethany phoned the police. It's common sense.
"If only all the different agencies had spoken to one another and communicated. It would have been a totally different story."
Boulton admitted killing Ms Vincent and her son, but denied murder. He claimed he had a dissocial personality disorder which effectively meant he was unable to exercise self-control when he repeatedly stabbed them.
During his trial the jury heard how he was controlling and manipulative of Miss Vincent and had developed an irrational hatred and resentment of DJ, who had autism.
He blamed DJ for problems in the relationship, even claiming that DJ "picked on him".
In the days before 31 May, despite two restraining orders, Boulton bombarded Bethany with hundreds of messages, some of them threatening.
On the day before the murders he sent her a threatening message which read, "nightmare on Holme Street".
The report detailed how Boulton had a long history of involvement with mental health services and had been referred to a community mental health team by his GP in January 2020.
He continued to have involvement with professionals over the course of the next few months.
In November of the same year Miss Vincent reported that she had been assaulted by him, which he admitted.
There were several other incidents involving police, and Boulton repeatedly breached orders banning him from contacting Miss Vincent, but the review concluded there was too much focus on Boulton's mental health needs.
It said: "Opportunities to have addressed a more thorough understanding of the perpetrator’s risk towards Bethany and DJ became secondary to the perceptions of the needs of the mental health of the perpetrator and he manipulated this to his advantage.
"The panel agrees that they were intrinsic to the overall picture, but those needs became the primary driver and not the numerous warning signs for safeguarding."
It added that he had shown signs of coercion and control towards Miss Vincent but "those signs were missed".
Bethany's father, Darren Vincent, said it was 'shocking' how many times his daughter and grandson had been let down:
"How many times did my daughter have to ring the police or talk to someone? How many restraining orders do you need and how many times have they got to be broken for someone to do something?
"They say lessons will be learned. But why has it taken our daughter and grandson losing their lives for that to happen?"
The review said that a most concerning aspect of the case was that no agency acted to address the perpetrator's "abject dislike of DJ and raise the threshold of that specific concern."
Caroline Vincent said DJ was a kind, loving boy who deserved better:
"The times that he [Boulton] said to people that he wanted DJ out of the way, that he was making the relationship hard, that DJ was 'bullying' him - he told workers this.
"The system let him down. There were screams for help there, but no one really took any notice."
The report made a series of recommendations, including to improve awareness among professionals of the risks of stalking and coercive control; training for people working with domestic violence perpetrators and improvements to the way information is shared between agencies.
Martyn Parker, of the Safer Lincolnshire Partnership, admitted that communication and information sharing between agencies "was not good enough".
"We have worked hard to put measures in place," he added.
The charity Women’s Aid said there were widespread gaps in the quality of training for people working with women affected by domestic abuse.
A spokeswoman added: "Women continue to tell us that lawyers, judges and social workers often have a poor understanding of domestic abuse. There are particular gaps around non-physical abuse and the impact of abuse on children, with abuse often being deemed ‘historic’ or ‘not relevant’.
“We are calling for consistent multi-agency training across the family courts, which is designed and delivered by specialists."
Both Caroline and Darren hope that by sharing Bethany and DJ's story it might prevent other such tragedies in the future.
Ms Vincent said: "I'm proud of them because if anything does happen from this, then they've done it. It took us losing them, and we hope it never happens to another family ever again, but I know Bethany would be saying 'go on, Mum, push this.'
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