3 women have been killed - why is the media still peddling the ‘nice guy’ narrative?

One woman a week is murdered by a partner or ex-partner; we need responsible reporting.

Three women, Carol Hunt, 61, and her two daughters, Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28, were murdered in what is believed to have been a targeted attack. The suspect, Kyle Clifford, 26, who was arrested last night after a large-scale man-hunt, was the ex-partner of the youngest daughter, Louise Hunt.

Despite Clifford being caught on film fleeing the scene with what appears to be a crossbow, mass media outlets have been quick to toe the ‘nice guy’ narrative. As journalist Chloe Laws wrote on Instagram, “‘Nice Guys’ don’t murder women!!!”. Law’s post references the maddening coverage from the mainstream media. Reports that should be focusing on the victims have instead led with perplexing quotes by a childhood friend of Clifford’s who says he “never seemed odd or aggressive” and, in a different news story, “always seemed pretty normal”. It’s an interesting angle for a man who was at the time on the run for suspected triple murder.

As Sharon Bryan, Head of Partnerships and Development at the National Centre for Domestic Violence, explains, the media needs to name what is happening when they report on an incident that is clearly domestic abuse and “Not say ‘the person was known to the victim’ or ‘he was such a nice guy’”.

While the details of Louise’s relationship with the suspect remain unknown, labelling her suspected murderer as a ‘nice guy’ is more than merely reductive; it’s damaging. As Bryan explains, abusive and violent men often do seem like nice guys; it’s part of how they get away with their abuse. “They are nice to everyone except the women they are abusive to!” adds Bryan, who says that the way the media report on domestic abuse incidents gives a false impression that these crimes are unusual. They are not. On average, one woman is killed every five days by a partner or former partner in England and Wales.

At this stage, it is unclear whether Louise or any previous exes had reported Kyle Clifford for abuse, stalking, or harassment, but based on what we know about intimate partner violence, it is unlikely that this would have been Clifford’s first offence. In a chilling post less than a week before her murder—and days after her split with Clifford— Louise Hunt had retweeted a post on X about admiring “women who leave”. The tweet, shared on July 3rd, opens with the statement, “I admire women who leave... It takes ALOT of strength to break a tie. it takes ALOT of self love to choose yo self.”

It was Louise Hunt’s last-ever tweet.

Normalising Kyle Clifford and his supposedly “nice” and “normal” personality peddles the idea that he’s a man who snapped. In reality, abusers rarely go from zero to triple murder. As Bryan tells me, “If we look at some of the most prolific serial killers in the UK alone, we know that before they started to kill women, they were domestically abusive to their partners.” Domestic violence is a worldwide epidemic, and yet media reporting would have us believe that these are extraordinary and isolated incidents.

This isn’t even the first crossbow murder. In 2018, Sana Muhammad was murdered by her ex-husband after he burst into her home and fired an arrow into her stomach. She was eight months pregnant. Last year, as reported by the BBC, a domestic homicide review found the Metropolitan Police had missed opportunities to protect Sana Muhammad from her abusive ex-husband.

“We need a complete overhaul of the justice system, particularly where it relates to domestic abuse and violence,” says Bryan, who cites serial killer and rapist Levi Bellfield as another example where police intervention could have protected women and prevented the murders of Milly Dowler, Marsha McDonnell, and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy. “Had the criminal and civil justice system taken his partners seriously and held him accountable, perhaps the women he killed would still be alive today,” argues Bryan.

The dilution of violence against women and girls has devastating effects. “Low prosecution rates for domestic abusers have a huge impact on the escalation of domestic abuse - it sends a very clear message to abusers that the judicial system does not take domestic abuse seriously and, therefore, gives them the green light to carry on,” explains Bryan.

The violence and murder of women and girls is no longer just normalised; it’s tolerated. As MP Jess Phillips put it, “We just tolerate the murder of women as one of those things that just happens as part of society.”

Violence is not normal, and it should never be tolerated, but until victims and survivors are treated as more than just footnotes in stories about ‘nice guys’, more women will lose their lives to senseless violence from abusers who are emboldened by a lack of retribution and increasingly, a lack of outrage.

If you, or someone you know, is suffering domestic abuse, you can contact the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit Women’s Aid or Refuge.

Anyone in immediate danger should always call 999.

Anyone looking for a space in a domestic abuse refuge can contact the Freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.