Alex Cole-Hamilton calls for 'urgency' to tackle violence against women after death of Edinburgh mum Vikki Soloman
Vikki Soloman, 44, died at her home in East Craigs earlier this year
Alex Cole-Hamilton has called for “urgency” from the Scottish Government in addressing violence against women following several deaths throughout the country in recent months, including Edinburgh mum Vikki Soloman.
Ms Soloman, 44, was killed at her home in East Craigs on July 20. Her ex partner, Lee Greenan, was arrested in connection with her murder but was later found dead inside his cell at HMP Edinburgh on July 26.
Alex Cole-Hamilton addressed the issue at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday afternoon (September 3), calling to John Swinney to act with a matter of “urgency” to tackle violence against women, including introducing stricter conditions on domestic abuse offenders.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats leader said: “In our last exchange before the summer recess, I asked the First Minister about protecting women and girls from male violence.
“In the following month, three Scottish women died at the hands of men.
“I went to the funeral of one of them. Vikki Solomon was 44, she was a mum, a passionate advocate to the beauty industry and she was known to several of us here in the chamber.
“She called the police asking for help following an assault by the man who, hours later, would go on to kill her. The police did not attend.”
Mr Cole-Hamilton also made reference to Stacy Hunter, who was murdered at her home in Renfrewshire on July 27 by her estranged husband Jim Mair. Mair, whose body was found nearby, has been on bail at the time following his arrest for assaulting Ms Hunter.
The Edinburgh North Western MSP said that Ms Soloman’s and Ms Hunter’s deaths were evidence of “a pattern here of women being horrifically let down by the system and with fatal consequences”.
He added: “Just this week, we’ve seen campaigners say that legislation isn’t making a difference for women.
“I want this government to succeed on this but it shouldn’t take barbaric acts of violence for all of us to wake up to what’s really happening out there.
“In the first half of this year, reported domestic abuse was up by nearly 20 per cent. Too many women are living in fear, and there is more we can do.
“Homes with a history of domestic violence should be properly flagged with a priority police call out. Abusers out on bail should be subject to GPS monitoring and face severe punishment for breaching their conditions. Police and courts should be given the power to remove violent men from family homes.
“So for Vikki, for Stacy, and all of those currently facing abuse, will this government act with urgency before more women die at the hands of men?”
First Minister John Swinney said that he was committed to “ensuring that we guarantee women’s safety in our society”, adding that his cabinet were looking at a “range of different measures” to achieve this.
He also pointed toward the alarming rise of misogynistic attitudes online. Mr Swinney said: “There is also another aspect of this that is a serious threat to our society, particularly to women and girls.
“It is the malevolence of so much of the online content that is flooding into the data feeds of men and boys in our society. I will do everything that I can.I will also co-operate willingly with the UK Government on the issues around controlling the epidemic of inappropriate material that is flooding information systems.”
Mr Swinney added: “The social media organisations that have unleashed that on our society are fuelling so much of what is going on in our society. That is not me making an excuse for anyone—it is me explaining why I think that we have such a difficult situation on our hands.
“If this Parliament could do one thing in unity for all of us to sign up to, it would be to make clear to the social media firms in this country and across the globe that they have a responsibility to clean up their act, because they are jeopardising the lives of women and girls in our society.”