Mum strangled to death by abusive ex-boyfriend felt police were powerless to stop him

Claire O'Connor was strangled to death by bouncer Aaron Mann on New Year's Day 2012 after a campaign of violenc

A mum who was killed and dumped in a car boot by her abusive ex-boyfriend felt police were unable to stop him.

Claire O'Connor was strangled to death by bouncer Aaron Mann on New Year's Day 2012 before he drove around with her body in the boot of his car for 30 hours.

Mann, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was jailed for 16 years in 2013 after being found guilty of murder.

The Coventry Telegraph reports a domestic homicide review, conducted by Nuneaton and Bedworth Safer Communities Partnership, said it wasn't clear whether Ms O’Connor’s death could have been prevented.

But report author Kathy McAteer did say that Ms O’Connor, aged 38, felt that the police couldn’t help her because Mann had repeatedly ignored bail conditions – and no action was taken against him.

Police also had records of four domestic abuse incidents between Mann and three previous partners.

On one occasion, in March 2011, police attended following a report that Mann had assaulted Ms O’Connor.

Victim: Claire O'Connor was strangled to death by her former boyfriend

Because the first police statement was so poor they had to go back though and when they did, 17 days later, Mann was at Ms O’Connor’s house decorating.

She said she didn’t want to continue with the prosecution and it was shelved.

Between March and August 2011 police were called to five incidents of domestic abuse between Mann and Ms O’Connor.

Just 11 days after Ms O’Connor made that decision Mann attempted to throttle her. A day later Mann broke into Ms O’Connor’s house and stole her purse.

The report concludes that “there was a history of domestic abuse and clear evidence that the victim was at high risk of serious harm”, outlining a series of factors including evidence from Ms O’Connor’s friends.

They saw him as dangerous and believed he was capable of killing her. 

Caged: Aaron Mann was jailed for a minimum of 16 years

The report adds: “No single agency held the full information about the circumstances, some of which was only known to the victim and friends.

“It is difficult to judge whether, had full information been shared in a timely manner, the multi agency picture would have been different.”

One issue raised by the report is the police’s inability to penalise Mann when he breached police bail.

Unlike court bail there is no penalty for breaching police bail, and Mann repeatedly ignored the terms of his bail.

Among a series of recommendations the chairman of the Safer Warwickshire Partnership Board has raised the police bail issue with the Home Office.